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4& North Carolina »«• l.u,»,
ThI E. S. C. Quarterly Doa
/OLUME 18, NO. 3-4 SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
over Legend On Page Two Complete Index On Page 66
*
PAGE 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
The E. S. C. Quarterly CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS
(Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly)
Vol. 18, No. 3-4 Summer-Fall, 1960
Issued at Raleigh, N. C. by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners: Mrs. Quentin Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Maurice
Van Hecke, Chapel Hill; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; W. Benton
Pipkin, Reidsville; Bruce E. Davis, Charlotte; Crayon C.
Efird, Albemarle.
State Advisory Council: Public representatives: James A.
Bridger, Bladenboro, Chairman; Sherwood Roberson, Rob-ersonville;
W. B. Horton, Yanceyville; Mrs. R. C. Lewel-lyn,
Dobson, and Dr. J. W. Seabrook, Fayetteville; Em-ployer
representatives: A. L. Tait, Lincolnton and G.
Maurice Hill, Drexel; Employee representatives: Melvin
Ward, Spencer, AFL and H. D. Lisk, Charlotte, CIO.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Insurance Division
JOSEPH W. BEACH Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
TED DAVIS Editor
Public Information Officer, Member Public Relations
Society of America
MARTHA JACKSON Associate Editor
Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E.S.C. Informational
Service, P. O. Box 589, Raleigh, N. C.
INDEX APPEARS ON PAGE 66
Top left: New bedroom designed by Tomlinson of High Point for
practicality combined with feminine charm. The two-poster canopy bed
conceals lighting which emphasizes the delicate, brass-accented arches
topping the headboard.
Right: THE GREAT CIRCLE CHAIR manufactured by CaliLounger, Inc.,
of Kernersville. The chair is 32 inches wide, 29 inches deep, and 27'/2
inches high and is available with or without a swivel.
Center left: Progress in finding the answer to the problem of desalting
sea water at an economically feasible price, thus making it available
for drinking, industrial and agricultural applications, has now reached
the pilot plant stage. In cooperation with the U. S. Department of the
Interior, Office of Saline Water, the distillation equipment shown under
test at Harbor Island may provide the answer to a problem that has
plagued mankind since the beginning of time.
Right: Riding Little Lady and Sonny on Emerald Isle are Betsy Bugg,
(L), Kay Hunter and Sherrod Fawler, all of Durham. The ponies and
horses belonging to developer Bill McLean love to carry the children
through the breakers.
Bottom left: W. A. Eckand, craftsman in special chancel furniture de-partment
of Southern Desk Co., puts finishing touch on Ornate Gathis
Pulpit. Corpus of Christ was hand carved by Mr. Frank A. Arthur, hand
carver.
Right: A Console from the Medallion Group. Note marble inlays on top
and Carpathian elm burl in door panels.
Henry E. Kendall, Chairman
Employment Security Commission
With this number of the QUARTERLY we up-date the
1952 Winter-Spring Edition of this magazine which also
featured Furniture.
Described as "cabinet makers shops" in the first U. S.
Census of 1790, furniture manufacturing was listed as oneil
of North Carolina's nine industries. At
that time it was fourth in importance in
the State, topped by textiles, tobacco,
lumber and timber products.
j**/^* *Q
'•*»# r
In 1950 there were 305 furniture plants!!
in North Carolina covered by Employ-i]
ment Security Laws. Today there are
410 plants with four or more employees.
If small novelty shops in homes and
schools are counted, North Carolina prob-ably
has more than 450 furniture manu
KEWD al«
facturing establishments.
Furniture is manufactured in quantity in 46 of our 10C
counties. The four top furniture producing counties are:
Guilford, Catawba, Davidson and Caldwell, in that order
Each has more than 6,000 employees insured under the Em-ployment
Security Law.
High Point, Guilford County, is the world's leading manu-facturing
center of wood furniture. Four special furnitun
showings are held each year in that city with buyers froir
all over the nation and numerous foreign countries making
the city their headquarters. Up to six thousand buyers at
tend each showing.
Drexel Furniture Company, with plants in Morganton
Drexel, and Marion is probably the largest furniture manu
facturing firm in the State, and one of the largest in th<
United States. Bedroom and dining room suites are thi
principal Drexel products.
North Carolina State College is the first University in tb
United States to offer a four-year course in Furniture Manu
facturing and Management. The College also offers a degre
in Wood Technology and conducts extension courses fo
workers in the furniture industry.
In the decade from 1950 to 1960 furniture employment ii
North Carolina rose from 32,793 to 42,930, a gain of 30.!
per cent. Total wages increased from $78.7 to $149.3 millions
a rise of approximately 90 percent. At the present rate o
increase, the State will continue to hold its number one posi
tion in furniture production in the United States and possi
bly be first in the world.
North Carolina has 11.1 per cent of all insured U. S. furni
ture employees. Within this State, furniture workers' earn
ings compare favorably with earnings in other manufacturin
industries.
Tourists sometimes ask permission to visit furnitur
factories. This presents a problem. Many factory operation
are spread over several buildings and unlike the making c
cigarettes which is done on a single machine about twent
feet long, can not be viewed with any degree of continuit
or sufficient safety. Some factories are considering specif
operational setups so that tourists may view, in safety, th.
making of fine furniture.
You will also find articles on resort developments in th
State, and an article on a large plant designed to de-sa
sea water for use in manufacturing and agriculture. This
a cooperative effort of the U. S. Department of Interior, Offic
of Saline Water, and a private corporation.
Your comments on this and other editions of the QUAI
TERLY are invited.
4
i
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 3
CONOVER CHAIR COMPANY IS FORTY YEARS OLD THIS YEAR
BOST
Conover Chair Company, Inc., located
along the Southern Railway System at
Conover, North Carolina, was one of the
pioneers in upholstered furniture manu-facturing
in the Newton-Conover section
of Piedmont North Carolina. The busi-ness
was started in the 1920's by Mr.
Alvin Bolick as the Conover Mattress
Company.
The company went into the manufac-ture
of upholstered ^SPlitek
furniture about 1927 Jr l|j
and has, over the
succeeding years,
continued to grow, to
refine its operations
and to improve its
product.
Mr. Charles C. C.
Bost, President of
Conover Chair Com-pany,
Inc., joined
the firm in 1932 and became a partner
with the founder, Mr. Alvin Bolick.
When Mr. Bolick retired in 1946, Mr.
Bost took over the active operation of
the company and became sole owner.
The company was incorporated on De-cember
1, 1958. Mr. Bost has been Presi-dent
and Chairman of the Board since
that date.
W. P. Bost and James J. Martin, both
Vice Presidents of the company, and
Fred Lee Sherrill, Jr., Secretary of the
company, complete the management
"team".
Mr. W. P. Bost is designer for the
company and also is responsible for pur-chases,
plant production and engineer-ing.
Mr. James J. Martin is Sales Manager
for the company, handles all phases of
marketing and service functions of the
operation.
Mr. Fred Lee Sherrill, Jr., recently
joined the company and has been assign-ed,
at this time, the personnel and qual-ity
control functions of the company.
The progress of Conover Chair Com-pany,
Inc. presents an interesting "story"
coinciding somewhat with the growth
and progress of the industrial Piedmont
area.
This factory by 1947 had more than
doubled its manufacturing area from
12,960 square feet to 28,815 square feet.
The expansion steadily continued until
today the plant area is 63,419 square
feet. The addition in late 1959 of a new
office building (completely air conditioned
and modern in every respect) set the
trend for a better type of construction
to be used on future buildings. The new
brick and concrete block construction has
been used on the new Fabric Cutting
Section, Warehouse and Shipping Section
completed this year.
The production facilities of the factory
have also been kept "up to date" and
modernized as the plant has expanded.
Conveyors carry the product throughout
the plant from the Machine Room to the
Shipping Room door as evidence of the
application of modern manufacturing
methods in use throughout the plant.
Modern machinery is to be found from
the Machine Room throughout the plant
and in the Office Section.
Conover Chair Company, Inc. manu-factures
a quality line of upholstered
furniture in the medium to high priced
brackets. The firm has concentrated on
Early American styling during the past
five years and is generally accepted as
one of the major sources in the country
for this category of furniture. The pro-duct
of the company is distributed
through sales agents throughout all of
the States east of the Mississippi River,
one row of States west of the River, and
with some distribution finding its way
on out to the West Coast.
The company maintains beautifully
decorated permanent display showrooms
in the Southern Furniture Exposition
Building in High Point, North Carolina,
and in the American Furniture Mart in
Chicago, Illinois. The product is present- —See CONOVER CHAIR, Page 39—
Upholstered Products of Conover Choir Company
mmm.:.
l»l I \< 1
1
Main Plant of Conover Chair Company containing the Fabric Cutting, Warehouse and Shipping Sections.
PAGE 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
DREXEL FURNITURE CO. — FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS OF PROGRESS
The history of the Drexel Furniture
Company is a "success story" typical of
many other businesses that have started
in a very small way, and have grown and
prospered under the American system of
free enterprise. It began on November
10, 1903, at what could have been little
more than a pasture crossing in the Pied-mont
Section of Western North Carolina,
where the first Drexel Furniture Com-pany
Plant was built.
From this small beginning, Drexel has
become known as the "World's Largest
Manufacturer of Quality Dining Room
and Bedroom Furniture". In addition,
the Heritage Furniture Company with
plants in High Point and Mocksville, and
the Morganton Furniture Company, in
Morganton, are operated as wholly-owned
subsidiaries, and sell their products under
the Heritage and Morganton brand
names.
The plant at Drexel is the oldest. It is
situated on the same site as the original
factory and employes 485 people. The
general offices of the Company are also
located at Drexel. The new $750,000 con-struction
project just completed has
doubled the showroom space, greatly in-creased
the main office and expanded
the warehouse facilities.
In Morganton, the Company operates
a combination dining room and occasional
furniture plant, a chair plant, and a
sample plant, all under the same roof.
Also at Morganton is the Table Rock
Plant acquired in January 1951 and now
operated as one of the Drexel Division
plants. A $150,000 expansion program
has just been completed at this plant.
These plants, together, employ over 1300
people.
A new Engineering Building is located
in the vicinity of the Morganton Plants.
Here is housed a machine shop, labora-tories,
and all engineering personnel to
serve the entire Company. Production
engineers are constantly doing research
and testing to improve production
methods, machinery and general work-ing
conditions to keep these plants ef-ficient
and modern.
The Marion Operation is the second
largest in the Drexel Organization. A
recent expansion program has combined
three plants into one mammoth facility,
employing some 600 persons and capable
of producing $10 million dollars of furni-ture
annually.
From Drexel's plants comes some of
the finest furniture produced in America.
Skilled craftsmen, modern methods and
machinery have made it possible to pro-duce
fine furniture on a mass production
basis. The average output is about 100
freight cars of furniture per week, need-ed
to meet the requirements of sales for
the Company which is in excess of $40
million dollars annually.
The Company's annual payroll is over
$14 million dollars. The Drexel Manage-ment
is especially cognizant of the "hu-man
side" of their Company. Good em-ployer
and employee relations are tradi-tional
with Drexel, as is the joint pride
of both in the Company's products and
continued progress. A formalized Profit
Sharing Plan, which pays employees a
share of the profits each year, has been
in effect for ten years. During these ten
years, Drexel employees have received,
as their share of profits, some $6 mil-lion
dollars in bonuses. In addition, the
Company provides many other benefits.
Drexel employees are not only regard-ed
as fine furniture craftsmen but are
also recognized as fine citizens. A large
percentage own their homes, Their con-tribution
toward the growth and better-ment
of their community has gained for
them the respect of their neighbors.
Drexel's new Engineering and Research Building
—
completed last year and located in the vicinity
of other Morganton Plants. Here is housed lab-oratories
and all engineering personnel which
serves the entire Company.
Decorators doing special hand decoration work on specialized furniture.
The Marion Plant. A remodeling and modernization program has just been completed there. The_ new
building combines three plants into one, capable of producing over 10 million dollars of furniture
annually.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 5
"WILMINGTON LOOK'S AHEAD" ONE OF STUDIES PROJECTED BY R. & S.
(An economic analysis of New Hanover
County with emphasis on the composi-tion
and trend of employment insured
tinder the Employment Security Pro-gram)
By E. Stanhope Dunn, Supervisor, Re-ports
and Analysis, Bureau of R & S,
ESC
The damper that has checked the econ-omic
growth of the Wilmington Area for
the past several years has now been lifted
with the transfer of the large Atlantic
Coast Line office from Wilmington to
Jacksonville, Florida.
This exodus had been in the planning
stage for several years so naturally it has
had a very depressing economic influence
on the Area. Employers have been very
apprehensive, and prospective employers,
especially in the trade and service indus-tries,
have been slow to establish busi-nesses
in an Area scheduled to suffer such
a sizable economic loss—a direct loss of
almost one thousand workers. But the
inevitable has materialized—the dreadful
uncertainty has been removed—and the
Area can now look ahead to the future
with optimism. There is nothing to pre-vent
it from recouping this loss and from
surging ahead as many other North Caro-lina
areas are doing in our highly com-petitive
economy.
At this crucial point in the Area's
economic progress, it might be well to
take stock of its accomplishments during
the past ten years.
It is reassuring to note that the
growth in insured employment (exclud-ing
railroad workers) in the Wilmington
Area during the last decade has been
slightly greater than that for the State
as a whole: 33.6 vs 33.1 per cent. During
this period, New Hanover's insured em-ployment
has risen from 11,100 in 1950
to 14,827 in 1959. A closer look, however,
at the employment trends of the differ-ent
industry divisions that go to make
up the total reveals a considerable devia-tion
from the state-wide pattern. More-over,
the depressing effects of the
attending uncertainty and the final re-moval
of the Atlantic Coast Line main
office are clearly discernible in the em-ployment
trends of the different industry
divisions.
To begin with, New Hanover County
was able to maintain approximately the
same overall insured employment growth
during the ten-year period only by
having a greater percentage gain in
manufacturing than the state-wide ex-perience.
This is highly significant be-cause
manufacturing gains are conducive
to growth in other industry divisions.
Given a good manufacturing base, an
employment expansion in other industry
divisions such as utilities, trade and
services will follow.
During the period from 1950 through
1959, manufacturing employment in New
Hanover rose from 4,344 to 5,558, a gain
of 27.9 per cent. In the same period, the
state-wide growth was only 22.3 per
cent. The Area's gain in construction
employment—50.6 per cent—significant-ly
exceeded the state-wide gain of 38.7
per cent. In all other major industries,
however, the growth in New Hanover
lagged behind the statewide gains as
shown in the accompanying Table I.
Those major industry divisions, such as
trade and services, which were expected
to suffer from the loss of a large em-ploying
establishment, did experience a
slower growth.
Attention is now directed to the manu-facturing
divisions, which fared the best — employmentwise — during the study
period. The major manufacturing indus-tries
in New Hanover County, with their
first quarter 1960 average monthly em-ployment
in parentheses, are: textile
(1,400); apparel (1,346); food products
(865); lumber and wood products (659);
chemicals (556) and fabricated metal
products (493). Although the last listed
industry—fabricated metal products
—
—See WILMINGTON, page 30—
DREXEL'S "PALAZZO" GROUPINGS
Bedroom and dining room pieces in Drexel's new Palazzo group. This is the newest and one of
the company's most popular groupings.
PAGE 6 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL 1960
UNAGUSTA MANUFACTURING CORPORATION NAMED FOR INDIAN CHIEF
The Unagusta Manufacturing Cor-poration
was organized in 1903, taking
its name from the famous Cherokee lead-er,
Chief Unagusta. The founders and
stockholders were established lumber-men
of the district, C H. Hobbs, E. E.
Quinlan, E. W. Monroe, C. E. Gordon,
and J. M. Burns.
Charles Prevost was the first superin-tendent
of the furniture plant and was
succeeded in 1909 by R. L. Prevost, Sr.
In 1914 C. E. Quinlan, son of E. E. Quin-lan,
became secretary-treasurer and di-rected
the company until his death in
1931. At that time Unagusta came under
the direction of R. L. Prevost, Sr., and
his sons and was headed by the Prevost
family until 1958. In that year there was
a reorganization of management with
M. H. Clarke as president; W. S. Prevost,
executive vice president; J. A. Prevost
and W. H. Prevost, vice presidents; and
R. L. Prevost, Sr., chairman of the
board of directors.
In 1936 Plant #2, a structure pre-viously
owned by the Waynesville Furni-ture
Company, was acquired but it was
destroyed by fire in 1955 and operations
were carried on in the old Plant #1 until
the completion of a new plant in Novem-ber,
1956. Plant #1 then was converted
to warehouse space.
The present Unagusta factory is one
of the most modern in the country—
a
three and one-half million dollar struc-ture
with floor space of 200,000 square
feet as against the 140,000 square feet
of the plant it replaced. It is engineered
throughout for efficient, cost-controlled
production of the highest quality bedroom
and dining room furniture. Its annual
capacity is approximately $10,000,000.00.
It has miles of mechanized conveyors
and there is a complete air change every
sixty seconds throughout the factory.
Some 400 persons are employed in plant
and offices, the majority of them natives
of Haywood County. Unagusta makes
veneered furniture in traditional, tran-sitional,
and contemporary designs. In its
earliest days the furniture was oak bed-room
suites—washstands, dressers, chif-foniers,
and beds. The next development
was walnut veneer and enameled groups.
In 1930 the firm became interested in
mahogany and for a number of years
—See UNAGUSTA, Page 39—
FORWARD FURNITURE
by
iiiiousia MANUFACTURING CORP.
ZELWOOD, NORTH CAROLINA
UNAGUSTA'S TRADE-MARK
The Lumber Handling and Dry Kiln Operations—Grading, measuring, and stacking lumber are left
to right) Dave Harveson, Dewey Flower, Charlie Pressley, and William L. Queen.
Henry M. Jordan, Forty-six years in Employment
Henry Jordan, Cut-off Saw Operator in the Rough
End Department holds the longest record of con-tinuous
employment at Unagusta—first day on
the job, July 1, 1914.
Section of the Finishing Department showing the conveyor carrying furniture to the various
finishing operations.
Artist's Sketch of the Present Unagusta Plant.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 7
FORESIGHT AND QUALITY ARE PACE-SETTERS AT TOMLINSON OF HIGH POINT
By Clifford W. Cox
Field Editor, Furniture Production
Magazine
Perhaps the most individualistic com-pany
in the furniture industry today is
Tomlinson of High Point (North Caro-lina).
In these days when many giants of
many different industries are pirating one
another's designs, Tomlinson has consis-tently
turned its back on what the rest
are doing. Not only has Tomlinson de-parted
from the routine aspects of furni-ture
manufacture and merchandising, it
has proven its independence to be profi-table.
Tomlinson's break with design tradi-tion
was first introduced with its Sophis-ticate
Collection in 1956; its effect on the
furniture scene was indeed startling, and
it was hailed as "a major milestone in
contemporary design." Not only did Tom-linson
violate the accepted maxims of
making an annual or semi-annual design
debut, it incorporated into its Sophis-ticate
theme five different but compatible
design motifs—all of which elevated the
firm above the usual one-horse design
practice. The Sophisticate Collection pre-ceded
Tomlinson's most recent departure,
the Pavane Assemblage, which will be
discussed below.
Sophisticate was designed by John
Lubberts and Lambert Mulder after 18
months of detailed study and develop-ment.
It is the result of elaborate con-sumer
studies and extensive market
analyses. As its name implies, Sophis-ticate
was developed to express the in-formal
sophistication of today's Ameri-cans.
It has an astonishingly low-scaled
suggestion of Oriental forms, Scandi-navian
flair, and a transitional mood of
modern Hepplewhite—all of which makes
it non-regional, yet well adapted for mix-ing
with antiques or modern abstractions.
The Sophisticate character is best seen
in the chairs, mainly casual or cocktail,
which have short sculptured legs and low
sweeping backs. Tables and cabinets have
similar light-scaled pecan members, gen-erous
open spaces, parquetry of several
burl veneers, and a soft brown Emberglo
finish.
Now four years in production, Sophis-ticate
has proven itself; and it rapidly
became a trend-setter. It is expected to
remain popular for ten to twenty years,
according to company officials. Perhaps
that sounds optimistic; but Tomlinson
seems sure of its ground.
The company also produces an uphols-tered
line, called Symphony in Color.
Symphony takes for its theme a har-monized
creativity of interior design.
Ninety-one available fabrics are coordi-nated
into thirteen groups of seven each —keyed to the thirteen top fashion
colors. These are blended in pattern and
texture, as well as solid colors, not for
matching but for blending with one
another in a variety of pieces.
Many reproductions of several period
pieces are also made. These might range
from an authentic Louis XVI chair, which
was designed to favor the king's paunch,
to an exquisite tiny love seat almost
exactly to the pattern of its fabric.
Finally, Tomlinson produces contract
furniture in two phases: hospital furni-ture
which is sold to a distributor, bid
contracts for specially designed pieces for
hotels such as the Eden Roc in Miami,
Key Biscayne, Marlin Beach in Ft. Lau-derdale,
the Ambassador Hotel in New
York, and Sophisticate for colleges such
as the University of Texas.
Shortly after the Sophisticate Collec-tion
was introduced Tomlinson began to
consider a new design. William A. Tom-linson,
president of the firm, made trips
to Europe to study classical architectural
traditions. The design ambition of the
company was to interpret these classic
forms to today's expression as to scale,
detail, and living standard. This general
research, ultimate design, production,
merchandising and development of set-tings
for the new Pavane Assemblage
cost over a quarter of a million dollars.
In order to discourage design pirates,
Tomlinson, as with Sophisticate, com-pleted
the designs for an entire line of
living, dining, and bedroom pieces be-fore
Pavane was introduced to the public.
The term "assemblage" is applied to
Pavane because it is made up of many
design motifs. These range from Bur-gundian
Gothic forms through Jacobean,
French wrought iron, Empire, and other
English, Italian and Greek traditions
—
This country living room from "Pavane" by Tomlinson expresses today's need for relaxed living. Furniture textures vary fro
ones of solid pecan chair framing and rare Javanese veneer on the table tops. Finish is a lightly distressed "Sherry"
m marble and iron to mellow
PAGE 8 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Tomlinson's plant has nearly three-quarters of a million square feet of production space.
forming- pleasing ovals in the backs. The
front legs of the ladderbacks are reeded
while those of the spoonbacks are not. An
upholstered chair has a high clippedwing
back trimmed with exposed wood. There
are shield-back chairs, spindle-backs, and
elegant bentwood back models; sleigh
beds, secretaries, chests, and round com-modes.
Other examples are a bombe
A man's chest by Tomlinson in the Sophisticate
Collection.
having an overall Renaissance feeling
which has been said to be Spanish!
Perhaps the best example of this work
is a long huntboard of wrought iron base
with a simply-turned pecan stretcher,
wide overhanging top, two long drawers
with a combination of straight and grace-fully
curved, molded fronts, and two nar-row
drawers with the molded theme ar-ranged
vertically.
Striking chairs are either solid spoon-backs
or ladderbacks with curved rungs
ing; some are designed for possible use
as sectionals. Backs are both flat-cushion-ed
and tufted.
Although it is too early to tell what
effect Tomlinson's break from customary
furniture manufacturing and merchandis-ing
policies will have on the industry—if
the merchandising of Pavane is as suc-cessful
as that of Sophisticate—perhaps
an "agonizing reappraisal" for the entire
industry will be indicated. Probably it
will be seen that the long range program
of design and development used in the
aircraft and automobile industries will
also be the order of the day for the furni
ture industry.
Tomlinson of High Point has adequate
floorspace for custom production in vol-ume—
roughly 13 acres. The firm employs
from four to five hundred persons on
straight time and incentive standards.
Machining equipment, while operating to
1/64 in. tolerances on tough pecan—re-
This Ply-Cor machine is loaded by operator W. C.
Lackey.
dresser with Karelian burl curved front,
an etagere—a narrow, tapered china cab-inet,
and a panetiere—an elaborate spin-dle-
type curio cabinet or chair-side table.
Several tables are made with thistle legs,
wrought iron bases, or pedestals. Others
have column designs. Lounge chairs,
sofas and loveseats have an Empire feel-
A sectional sofa is
left, and Bill Rose.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 9
quiring carbide tools and relatively rapid
turn-over—is similar to that of other
firms. What, then, is the difference?
What makes Tomlinson an industry-leader?
Flexibility of production is their best
feature, company officials say, calling
it a "custom operation on a production
basis." But one other reason is apparent
—Tomlinson has made design and mer-chandising
compatible terms. The two go
hand in hand in a direct route to the
consumer. Like this:
According to Sidney H. Tomlinson,
rice-president and sales manager, Tom-linson
has undertaken a new design ap-proach.
The old concept of design was
to draw up "what we thought the con-sumer
ought to have. We'd say this or
that is right for his taste. Now we ask
the consumer what he wants." However,
the consumer has difficulty explaining
what he wants; and merchandising has
been a guessing game.
Tomlinson conducts its market surveys
in a way that doesn't influence the buyer.
As many motivation researchers know
the survey questions usually confine the
information wanted to certain choices,
limiting the results to pre-conceived no-tions
on the part of the research staff.
So Tomlinson doesn't conduct any polls,
doesn't ask any leading questions which
can only narrow down the information
to somewhat educated guesses. Tomlin-son
isn't interested in what is happening
now—what the consumer is buying now —but what he will buy two or three years
from now.
A steering committee is formed from
key retailers who are rotated for semi-annual
meetings. These meetings are held
to discuss evidence of coming trends. Al-though
three Tomlinson people are pres-ent
at these meetings—the president, the
style director, and sales vice-president
—
they do not take part in the discussions.
Tomlinson refrains from allowing any
outside influence, such as personal prefer-ence
or production advantage, to "cor-rupt"
the survey. Actually the steering
committee is not made aware of Tom-linson's
conclusions until after many
preliminary drawings are made. Months
later, perhaps, when color renderings are
shown to certain buyers—if they say
"this is what I've been looking for and
didn't know it," Tomlinson knows it's
hitting close to a potentially good design.
Tomlinson's design staff sketches ap-proximately
what is wanted in rough
ideas; and these sketches are then sub-mitted
to the steering committee for re-finement.
Some samples are built to study
engineering problems and ways of pro-ducing
the piece most economically. Then
hardware is designed and the building
of showroom pieces is begun.
As these pieces are completed decora-tors
are brought to the plant showrooms;
and a 13-room setting is designed to
show the pieces to best advantage. When
these settings are completed a preview
is given to dealers before any details or
pictures are released to the public. For
example, 75 pieces of Pavane were shown
to the dealers in April 1959 before sam-ples
were shipped to them in October and
eventual exposure to the public, as well
as competitors.
Tomlinson feels that its furniture
should be shown in a specific manner as
to accessories, wall and floor coverings,
and draperies and bedspreads. The firm
asks that its franchised retailers display
their Tomlinson settings as they are
seen in the company showrooms. An ex-ample
is a dining area setting of Pavane
containing a pedestal table, spoonback
chairs, the escritoire—a chest with drop-front
writing surface, a ladderback chair,
a startling white upholstered chair, and
a break-front with white interior up-
(L to R) Butternut veneers are laid-up on solid cores. Wood eouls prevent veneer damage. (Center) James Snow sub assembles table rails. (Right)
Attorn' Ch
e
arVie
te
Bla?k%o^man
y
o1r
y
°hrvfneer department, examines some yew and Swiss Karelian burl veneer. This care is typical of the many steps
mTh^^fMAiS^JIt^aMmM. (Center) J. T. Bell sets up Bell 24 Double End Cut-off, Chucking and boring machine. (Right) A D.ehl
apeless slicer running poplar cross banding is off beared by Bob Fowler.
PAGE 10 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Top (L to R) A Symphony short sofa is hand-tufted by Davis Harris. (Center) Jesse Riggs rubs glaze on a reproduction Louis XVI chair. (Right) A hydrau-lic
lift raises heavy pieces to convenient spraying height for Harold Bell.
Bottom workers are seen in the hand sanding department. (Center) Lola Hitchcock "jitterbugs" a chair with Sundstrand Sander. (Right) Minor repairs are
made on a Sophisticate table in the hand-sand department by Robert Carrigan.
per section. The rug is a solid watermelon
color which is also carried out on one
wall surface. The spoonback seats are
a lighter shade of red, the tableware is
deep red amber, and the napkins are also
watermelon. A white floral vase sits on
the escritoire, a table lamp with a white
shade is on the writing shelf, a red mesh
pattern on a white background is on
another wall, and finally the centerpiece
of the dining table has yellow pears
nestled in white lace. This setting is
described in the Pavane brochure as be-fitting
a town house, a suburban or even
a country home. "The bold color scheme
has a dashing contemporary character."
The success of this policy of decorated
displays is borne out by the fact that
new dealers are continually soliciting
franchises to display the older Sophis-ticate
Collection since Pavane has been
released. The company has experienced
a similar acceptance of Pavane.
Tomlinson believes that manufacturers
should maintain a close relationship with
retailers — approching a partnership
basis. This type of merchandising was in-troduced
in 1936 with Tomlinson's Wil-liamsburg
Galleries. Some of the
Williamsburg is still seen in antique
shops across the country.
Wood selection for Tomlinson furniture
is a major consideration in design de-velopment.
Many painstaking experi-ments
are carried on to obtain a blend
of species which contributes to the char-acter
of the Tomlinson product. A fea-ture
most readily apparent is that the
final finish and tone of both Sophisticate
and Pavane is singular, although, for
instance, nine different woods are used in
the Pavane Assemblage. There are vary-ing
degrees of shading in pieces such as
legs, table aprons, and other interstices
which are properly subdued; while tops
and fronts are emphasized by a striking
iridescence—all the while retaining a
tone relationship calculated to highlight
and shadow each piece according to its
design.
For Pavene these woods, both solid and
veneer, are American pecan, English
yew, American butternut, English box-wood,
imported rosewood, Javanese ve-neer,
American figured walnut, Karelian
burl, and myrtle burl. Incidentally, the
Perle d'Or Portuguese jewelry-type
marble used on the tops of some pieces
has an affinity of texture with nearly all
of the woods.
Tomlinson found that sweet pecan
bought from the stump in the Mississippi
Delta country blends properly with the
butternut veneer. This pecan is almost
indistinguishable from hickory except
that it is of high density, has a delight-ful
color, and affords exceptional strength
for use in solid members.
There is only one manual handling of
the lumber from boxcars to stacking for
kiln charges. This operation is aided by
a huge Ross fork-lift. The charges are
sent to the kilns for drying to approxi-mately
5% M.C. About 14 days are re-quired
to dry a charge of 4/4 pecan. From
here the lumber proceeds through two
dry sheds for stabilization, thence to the
rough end. A grab-unloading hoist mov-ing
on a monorail is used to transfer the
lumber from the kiln trucks to Porter
cut-off saws. From here it is conveyed
through a Jackson and Church surfacer,
Buss planer, and finally to four Mattison
ripsaws. Pecan is sent to cabinet ma-chining
operations; hackberry is sent to
the Ply-Cor machine or to machining for
upholstery frame parts.
That Tomlinson goes to great lengths
to obtain a high standard of quality and)
wood blending is evident in its machining
operations. Pecan frequently has mineral
streaks in it that punish tools and ma
chines. Its density causes much kick
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 11
jack and requires the use of heavy
guards. But this density has an advan-
;age, however, in that it resists feed and
?auge pressure, allowing a dimension
;olerance of 1/64 in. or about 15 thou-sandths.
This in turn assures tight mitre
ioints. Since much of Tomlinson's as-sembly
is on the order of hand-craft,
production is speeded up by operating
;he machines at peak requirements at all
;imes. Molding is done on a Mattison 270,
:hair posts and other parts are jig-shap-
;d on a Whitney auto feed single spindle
nachine, and frame parts are cut off and
)ored for double dowelling in one opera-ion
on a Bell No. 24 machine. In order
;o decrease down time for maintenance
romlinson uses carbide-tipped tools in
nolders, tenoners and shapers. These ma-rines
are replaced usually, due to in-reased
maintenance requirements or
;echnological improvements, on an aver-ige
of every five years. Stand-by
jquipment is also provided to assure con-inuous
operation.
Lumber cores, used in dining table
;ops and drawer fronts, are produced on
i Ply-Cor machine. Cores for other pieces
ire made from chipcore edge-grooved
ind banded with solid stock. This as-sembly
is speeded with the use of a
Lancaster radio-frequency glue press and
a Raybond 5 kva generator.
Since a great deal of Tomlinson furni-ture
has many decoratively curved parts,
three More multi-spindle carving ma-chines
are kept busy producing the curv-ed
members of chair arms, legs and
backs; cabinet door members and pedi-ments;
bed headboard carvings; table
pedestals, etc. The machine carvings
are cleaned up by hand carvers who de-liberately
leave small "mistakes" to en-hance
the hand-craft touch.
The veneer process and storage room
is huge, encompassing many veneer op-erations.
Sophisticate and Pavane furni-ture
has many intricate parquetry and
decorative veneer features which entail
much tedious clipping, matching, and
splicing operations. Butternut veneer is
bought in the flitch; various burls are
obtained in fragments. English yew burl,
in its separate state particularly, is very
fragile. Yet the veneer room employees
are able to "inlay" special treatments
such as rosewood stars or provide pre-cise
spaces for intricate brass effects.
The herringbone pattern of zebra-wood
is one of the matcher's art, since this
striped grain is naturally parallel. Kare-lian
burl, having a natural distress, is
used in drawer fronts and door panels
of many pieces. These operations are
done with Capitol clippers, Onsrud jig
routers, and Diehl tapeless splicers. Pop-lar
crossbanding with chipcore is used in
panel lay-ups with wood cauls to pre-vent
damage in the hot-press.
Flat stock is sanded prior to assembly
on an Oakley stroke sander, curved pieces
are sanded on pneumatic drums, carv-ings
are sanded on spindle machines, and
moldings are sanded on hand-block belt
models. Tomlinson goes a step further by
washing all parts in a glue size to raise
the grain; then they are machine sanded
again with fine grain paper to perfect
the finish. There will be more sanding
operations after assembly.
Assembly is another major part of
Tomlinson's operations because most of
the pieces are intricate; many of the
chairs and sofas have curved members,
while cabinets are highly decorative.
Door frames, drawer fronts and table
aprons are glued up in a Lancaster R. F.
press, screw and hydraulic presses. Hide
glues, dowels and screws are used in
stress points. From here on assembly is
largely tedious hand-craft with the use
of glue pots, dowels, screw guns and
hand clamps. Many glue blocks are used;
op (L to R) Clyde Woods webs a sofa seat. Solid webbing is applied on arms and backs. (Center) Dealers in fabric samples are assembled by Dot Shubert.
ot handles a thousand patterns, including leather. (Right) Tomlinson's 8-way lacing on seat springs is put in place. (Bottom) Glaze is applied on buffet
ront. (Center) Upholstery superintendent Jim Blackwell checks fabric arriving into department via chute from sewing room. (Right) All upholstering on
rench and English Petite Seige Benches is done by Charley Jones.
QUARTERLY
Top (L to R) Back is sewn on a sample chair by Grace Wall, an "outside" upholsterer. (Center) Fabric is applied to the seat of a Sophisticate cock-tail
chair by upholsterer Melvin Howard. (Right) Earley Cox gives a final inspection to a cocktail table with Pernige marble top.
Bottom (L to R) Burlap, permalator strip, and back hair are applied by Jessie Griffin. (Center) Fragile pieces are heavily crated in the efficient packing
department, (Right) One of the Tomlinson trucks is shown at the loading platform prior to leaving to make an overnight delivery to New York.
and skids are attached. The pieces are
then sanded again with hand-blocks and
Sunstrand "jitterbugs."
Finishes are Fruitwood, Antique Apple-wood,
Emberglo, Pompeian White, Anti-que
White, Cherryglo, Laurent Cherry,
Italian Walnut, Sherry and Applewood.
Finishing operations are carried out in
from 18 to 21 steps on a deBurgh 272-
pallet chain-type conveyor running at
6 ft. per minute. This department alone
employs over forty-two workers. Grand
Rapids Varnish Company is a major sup-plier
to this department.
The finish sequence for Sophisticate
Emberglo is as follows: a nograin-raise
stain is sprayed on; then a toner pre-cedes
a wash coat and scuff sand; a filler
is sprayed on and ragged off; then spray
seal and second scuff sand follow. Glaze,
shading, second sealer coat, and third
scuff sand are next. Distressing is applied
with a small spatter gun, using 60# air
and very minute fluid pressure. Hot lac-quer
is applied with Spee-Flo equipment.
Oven drying follows for 40 min. at 120°
F; then all pieces receive an overnight
dry. Finally they are machine and hand-rubbed
with pumice and oil; and lastly
receive a polish with black Grand Rapids
wax.
About 50% of Tomlinson's output is
upholstered; and much of it has exposed
wood members. Where possible Tomlin-son
protects these finished surfaces with
leather "boots" during upholstery opera-tions.
Tomlinson uses nearly all types of up-holstery
fabrics from silk, brocade and
tapestry-type weaves to vinyl and gen-uine
leather which are supplied by many
major fabric manufacturers such as
Craftex Mills and other import outlets.
These covers are applied to customer
specification. Patterns are cut for single
layers of material. These are tagged with
a number denoting the shipping date to
coordinate the arrival of the fabric and
the frame to the upholstery room. The
sewing room is equipped with a basket
conveyor which runs past a battery of
sewing and welting machines.
The upholstery build-up has the char-acteristic
Tomlinson emphasis on quality.
Marshall spring units are used with
foam down, cotton and dacron filler in
cushions. Upholstery frames are first
heavily webbed with solid and strip web-bing
on seats and backs. Coil springs are
given an 8-way tie with Ludlow twine.
Perma-lator wire flattens seats and
backs, and some individual wire applica-tions
are made between springs and
covers. Interlaced hair is used in backs.
A muslin interliner is used in tufted
pieces.
The cover operations are divided into
group application. One man works only
on seats, a second on arms, and a third
on backs. There are several upholsterers
in each group. Two other separate opera-tions
are "outsiding" and special order
upholstery. Outsiders apply rear panels,
sides, and skirts. These skirts have been
reinforced with buckram. Special order
upholsterers complete all cover applica-tions
on floor samples and some newly
designed pieces. Finally, for some pieces
such as loveseats of both period and con-temporary
styles, one upholsterer covers
the entire piece. Cover applications are
made with French seaming—eleven
stitches to the inch.
Hardware is applied near the packing
department. The heavy wrought iron
cabinet and table bases are specially de-signed.
These are either round or hexa-
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 13
gonal with brass footpads. Other hard-ware
is brass cabinet grilles, piano hinges
by Chatauqua, solid brass chair finials
and leg "tassels".
Tomlinson's shipping department is
extensive. A small crating department
produces "custom" crates for odd pieces
which cannot be cartoned and those which
are both cartoned and crated for either
rail or truck transportation specifica-tions.
Several different items are pres-sure-
packed in the same type carton.
Tomlinson helped promote the 23-F speci-fication
of suspended crate-cartoning in
the interstate shipping regulations.
While Tomlinson ships by common car-rier
it also maintains 5 big vans and one
small one for special customer service de-livery.
Trailers are Black Diamond and
tractors are International. The company
tries to break even on its own trucking
costs by dead heading raw material on
return trips. For instance, Tomlinson
offers overnight delivery to New York.
Two drivers handle each van and do their
own unloading. Dealers being served in
this manner express enthusiasm about
the service because damage is held to
a minimum.
Finally Tomlinson has developed a
merchandising "follow-through" which
has paid dividends. When a dealer sends
in a furniture order he includes the cus-tomer's
name. A special woven name-plate
is made up and attached to every
piece in an unobtrusive place. For in-stance,
a nameplate reading:
Furniture by Tomlinson
Tailor Made
for
Mr. & Mrs. John Doe
might be sewed on the spring cover be-neath
the cushion of a sofa.
A service questionnaire is sent to each
customer with an offer of a can of liquid
wax for filling out and returning the
form. Some typical questions ask how
Tomlinson furniture was introduced to
the customer, a commentary on the dis-play,
other pieces the customer is plan-ning
to buy, commentary on pieces pur-chased,
pieces wanted but not presently
available, magazine subscriptions, age
group, and names of other interested
persons.
Twenty Tomlinson salesmen are equip-ped
with film and slide machines used
to give the dealer an authentic back-ground
for sales talks and training aids
to floor personnel. Tomlinson quality is
the major selling point.
Plant personnel are never allowed to
forget the importance of the quality fac-tor.
A vigorous management-personnel
communications program is carried on by
Zalph Rochelle, Personnel Director, with
an in-plant publication called The Tom-linson
Announcer. The Announcer has a
columnist from each department; it is
heavily packed with "personals", trib-utes
from management, and constant re-minders
that Tomlinson's success is
—See TOMLINSON, Page 15=-
CAROLINA UPHOLSTERY HAS NINETEEN SALESMEN;
THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE PATTERNS, COLORS
By G. J. WlLLIARD
President & Founder
On April 1st 1940, we began manufac-turing
upholstered living room furni-ture.
Our present location is 201 S. Hamil-ton
Street, High Point. Here we have
our own show room with adequate space
for showing our entire line which now
consists of the following pieces:
French Provincial—Early American
100% Rubber Sofas and Chairs
Duncan Phyfe—Lawson Sofas and
Chairs
Odd Chairs, Modern Suites, Sectional
Groupings
King Sleepers, Sofa Beds and Chairs,
Platform Rockers and Dozers
We now have 19
salesmen represent-ing
our line through
the different States.
Our line is shown by
pictures and samples
of upholstered ma-terials
with the dif-ferent
colors.
Once each year
we issue a new cat-alog
with prices of
WlLLIARD our new numbers
added and the older pieces still showing.
Our construction is the best with style
and good combinations of covers with a
selections of approx. 375 patterns and
colors.
We have approximately 80 employees
including the frame plant. Our employees
are benefited by the Company assum-ing
a portion of the insurance payments
and a bonus at the end of the year.
Top left, shows J. D. (Spike) Yates at work. He is the man who made the first pieces of furniture
produced by Carolina Upholstery. (Right) Upholstery Superintendent Laurence Halker and Plant
Operations Superintendent Charles Stone look on as skilled upholsterer Jack Lewallen installs
rubber pieces in chair. (Bottom) Shows spring and chair construction and (right) cross-section
of upholstery end foam rubber.
PAGE 14 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
"Style and Craftsmanship" Comprise Heritage Philosophy; Drexel Divisions
Heritage Furniture, Inc. was organized
in 1937 in High Point, North Carolina
by Elliott S. Wood. Operations were
begun in an upstairs rented space with
only a few employees. The Heritage-
Morganton Companies now employ ap-proximately
1,200 employees.
The management has always had as
its basic philosophy to manufacture the
very highest quality furniture with the
emphasis placed upon style and crafts-manship.
The Heritage firm was incorporated in
1939 with Mr. Wood as president, a posi-tion
he still retains. Other officers are:
Rhett Ball, vice-president, director of
manufacturing; Tilman B. Thomas, sec-retary-
treasurer; John K. Dwyer, vice-president
and sales manager; Mel Binney,
vice-president in charge of merchandis-ing;
Don E. Smith, assistant secretary
and Tom Gooding, assistant treasurer.
The Company's main offices and High
Point showrooms are located at 1690
English Street. Permanent display space
is also maintained in the Merchandise
Mart Building in Chicago.
The Upholstery Plant, which produces
upholstered living room furniture, is
located at 741 Ward Street in High Point.
This plant was completed in August of
1955 and it is now the center of com-plete
upholstery operations for both Heri-tage
and Trende' (a division of Heri-tage).
The ten acre tract upon which
this plant is situated, provides adequate
storage space for two million feet of
lumber. The handling is minimized by
use of a fork-lift truck. A complete dry
kiln, lumber tempering storage space,
together with a hydraulic lumber lift is
included. This plant of masonry and
steel construction, has an enclosed floor
space of 160,000 sq. ft.
The Table Plant, which was originally
located at the English Street address,
now occupied by the offices and show-room,
moved to a new plant in Mocks-ville,
North Carolina in 1947. Early in
1951, this building was increased to
90,000 sq. ft. By 1955 demands made it
necessary to again expand and a further
addition was made. Increased lumber
tempering storage space was provided
Heritage Upholstery Plant located in High Point
Heritage Table Plant is Mocksville enterprise.
Morganton Furniture Company, Morganton is a Division of Drexel.
•UMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 15
n 1959 and the plant now exceeds 100,-
)00 sq. ft. It is U-shaped in design, has
;he latest and most modern equipment
md facilities, including railroad plat-
'orms, dry kilns, and lumber handling
equipment. It is conceded to be one of
:he most modern and best engineered
woodworking plants in the country. The
rable Plant produces occasional living-room
tables.
Heritage furniture is sold nation-wide
;o department and furniture stores and
;o interior decorators, and has its own
sales staff.
Morganton Furniture Company was
organized in 1904, and is said to be the
eldest manufacturing plant in Morgan-ton,
North Carolina. It is frequently re-ferred
to as "The Old Shop". Officers of
Morganton Furniture Company are: Elli-ott
S. Wood, president; Rhett Ball, vice-president;
Tilman B. Thomas, vice-presi-ient-
treasurer; and Don Smith, secretary
and assistant treasurer.
Morganton is under the active manage-ment
of Heritage. The acquisition of this
oedroom and dining room plant in 1957
supplemented the existing line of uphols-tered
living room furniture and tables
manufactured by the Heritage uphol-stery
and table plants. Morganton Furni-ture
Company manufacturers bedroom
and dining room furniture under the
Heritage trade name and also under its
awn trade name. Its products, like Heri-tage,
are nationally known and are sold
nation-wide by the Heritage sales or-ganization.
TOMLINSON
—Continued from page 13
—
founded on people doing quality work.
Monthly, each department is inspected
and rated by the president and the results
are published in The Tomlinson Announ-cer.
The ratings are based on the safety
and cleanliness of the operation. Tom-linson
probably has the cleanest plant
in the industry.
The firm president, William A. Tom-linson,
personifies Tomlinson's products.
He boldly asserts the company's role as
a design, production and merchandising
pioneer—putting into motion industrial
progress in new directions. First with
Sophisticate; then with Pavane.
"It is clear," Mr. Tomlinson says, "that
in America today there is a strong tide
of appreciation for the classical qualities
of timeless design which knows no period
and no geographical limitation. The con-ception
of a compatible realization of
classic architecture used in contempor-ary
North America became the task of
the Pavane Assemblage.
"The name Pavane is derived from the
Latin 'pavo', meaning 'peacock'. The
word itself is the name of a 17th Century
dance."
It is apparent that in this "dance"
Tomlinson knows all the steps, is paying
the fiddler, and is calling the turns. Mr.
Tomlinson states it clearly when he says,
"Pavane was designed for those who set
the pace."
Silver Craft: Custom Operation On A Volume Basis
What was conceived some fifteen years
ago as a "house and garage" type opera-tion
has, today, developed into one of the
leading furniture manufacturing firms of
the South. This would be Silver Craft
Furniture Company of High Point, North
Carolina.
Under the inspired leadership of the
late Philip A. Silver, founder and first
president, the expansion program had to
be initiated almost immediately. Within
five years, the firm moved to larger facil-ities
two times and the present plant site
has since been enlarged a total of four
times with the result that it is now double
its original capacity.
Mr. Silver applied the merchandising
experiences he had gained in more than
thirty years in the men's clothing indus-try
to his new venture—and made it
successful. As the firm grew, so-grew its
management team, new venture—and
made it successful. As the firm grew, so
grew its management team.
Norman Silver, the founder's son, join-ed
the firm immediately upon graduation
from the University of North Carolina.
Next came Darrell Pierce as production
manager and R. G. Smith, with forty
years in the upholstery fabric business,
as general superintendent. The team was
completed several years later when Irving
Silver, younger son of Philip, took his
place within the framework of the execu-tive
management organization.
It was, then, this group, which com-bined
the guidance of the founder and
R. G. Smith with the aggressiveness of
the Silver brothers and Darrell Pierce,
that brought Silver Craft to the high
position it now holds in the industry
among medium priced occasional chair
manufacturers.
With the untimely passing of Philip
Silver in 1959, his son, Norman, assum-ed
the presidency of the firm and the rest
of the management remained intact.
Shortly thereafter, Stanley Twigg of
Cleveland, Ohio, the Midwestern sales
representative for the firm, was appoint-ed
to the position of sales manager.
Twigg brought with him over twenty-five
years of furniture retailing experience
with Sterling-Linder-Davis Company,
prior to his Silver Craft affiliation.
In its initial operations, Silver Craft
was mainly a producer of budget priced
promotional chairs. Two years ago, the
firm decided to attempt to fill what it
considered was a definite void in the
industry. This was the medium priced
chair that offered the styling and broad
fabric selection usually associated with
higher priced furniture.
The changeover turned out to be even
more difficult than was originally antici-pated—
but the job was completed and
now Silver Craft feels that they have
created for themselves a definite unique
niche within the furniture industry. Ac-cording
to Stanley Twigg, the firm sells
service on an equal basis with merchan-dise.
They offer more than seventy dif-ferent
chair frames, more than four
hundred individual upholstery fabrics,
twelve hand-rubbed finishes, prompt
store-door delivery by its own truck fleet
in thirty-five states, and a compact cata-log-
fabric-book sales kit which facilitates
special order selling.
The firm tries to remain flexible
enough in their production and selling in
order that they may offer a few little
extras that the dealer appreciates. As an
example, if someone wishes a chair with
upholstering detail different from the
usual, the firm is willing and pleased to
accommodate them. In other words, they
have developed a custom operation on
a volume basis.
Even before the upgrading of the
Silver Craft line came about, the firm had
many "firsts" to its credit. The firm lays
title to being the first to offer its entire
line with the optional choice of tight
seat or loose cushion construction, which
was accomplished by a unique frame de-sign
conceived by R. G. Smith. It was
also the first, according to company of-ficials,
to offer top quality quilted fab-rics
in the popular priced furniture field.
Also they claim they were the first to of-fer
both woven and vinyl fabrics on their
entire line of chairs, including deep tuft-ed
backs and seats.
Most of the styles of both frame design
and fabric selection are the work of
Norman Silver with refinements suggest-ed
by the rest of the management staff.
Not only is appearance considered of ut-most
importance at Silver Craft but seat-ing
comfort is given equal attention.
Regarding upholstery fabrics, the firm
considers this to be one of the most im-portant
phases of their over-all planning.
They look at literally thousands of in-dividual
patterns at the beginning of each
season from which those to be used in
the new line are selected.
The management at Silver Craft has
the reputation for being among the hard-est
and longest working in the business.
However, according to the firm's presi-dent,
"we are glad to do it because we
know we are building something for the
future on which our dealers can depend
and of which each and everyone of us
can be proud."
Nonform Placements Dropped
In October
The one-third decline from September
was due to a substantial decrease in
nonfarm job orders received by the
local offices. The seasonal employment
decline in some industries, especially to-bacco
processing, made for fewer job
opportunities. Compared with October
1959, nonfarm placements decreased 6
per cent due to a slowdown in some
activities.
PAGE 16 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
ALL PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED BY Y. & J. ARE SOLD DIRECT TO USERS!
The Y & J Furniture Company of
Durham, N. C. first started operations
in September of 1946, basically as an
upholstering company.
Due to the long experience of the
founders, the making of reproductions
in the cabinet line soon became one of
the principal facets of the concern.
At present, the Y & J is strictly a
custom house, producing top quality re-productions
in the cabinet line in solid
mahogany, walnut, cherry and maple,
and also exquisite upholstered furniture
of a period nature.
The entire production of the factory
locate at 1612 E. Geer Street, Durham,
N. C. is sold directly to householders
from the showroom at the same location
Yorbroughs, Sr. & Jr.
and from a showroom located in Green-ville,
N. C.
In addition to the manufacturing men-tioned
above, the Company also does
restoration work on antique furniture;
and all types of refinishing and re-up-holstering,
offering the buyer one of
the largest selections of fabric samples
in this section.
Although its beginning was humble,
the Y & J has grown until it now em-ploys
25 people representing over 350
years experience and is one of the lead-ing
businesses of this type in the State.
Early American, Hepplewhite, Shera-tion
and Chippendale styles make up the
bulk of the reproductions, although some
orders for modern and Scandanavian
pieces have been filled.
Finishes are done by hand giving each
piece a soft and lustrous but dull finish.
Top coats are a very high solid content
lacquer having tremendous strength and
elasticity.
Extreme care is exercised in the pur-chase
of the lumber for the case goods
to insure that the best grades of kiln
dried lumber are used. Details of con-struction
of these pieces are given extra
attention in order that the customer will
receive furniture of such quality that a
life time of use can be expected from it.
In the upholstering line, only the very
best of webbing, springs, poly-foam and
foam rubber are used in conjunction with
curled hair and moss to form a founda-tion
that can be used over and over as
the owner re-upholsters in the years
following their purchase. The largest
cloth supply houses in the country are
represented in the thousands of samples
available for customers.
The restoration department follows an
age-old procedure for refinishing in that
pieces to be done first have the old finish
removed by use of a quick acting finish
remover requiring no stop-bath after ap-plication.
After waiting for this remover
to dry, the craftsman then takes the piece
apart, exposing all dowels and tenons.
All joints are cleaned and repaired and
then all parts are carefully sanded until
the natural wood is exposed. Then the
piece is re-assembled with animal glue
and new screws and set in clamps for
24 hours. After the clamps are removed,
a brief cleaning, and the piece is ready
for the finishing room.
Y & J provides a very unique service
in its finishing room in that it has been
designed with the idea of matching any
feasible finish a customer may desire.
The Company has been called on to pro-duce
many patterns and effects in special
finishes and the results have been good;
thus furthering the custom-house repu-tation
of the firm.
It is difficult to describe every func-tion
of Y & J, as it is one of the few
remaining real custom houses devoted
to the making of furniture to its cus-tomer's
specifications, but quality ma-terials
and craftsmanship, excellent serv-ice,
old-world charm, and variety would
best describe its operations.
M. S. Yarbrough, Jr.
Nonmanufacturing Placements
Mixed
Construction placements decreased
from last month with the approach of
cold weather, and also dropped under
October a year ago when building activi-ty
was more brisk. In trade and business
services, placements rose with the start
of the fall season.
Starting at top, L to R: Sheraton bed posts are turned by hand. Color being sprayed on mahogany
h
chest. Filler on chest is handrubbed. Chest case is hand fitted. Chest drawers of chest are handfitted. I
Drawer guide is installed on drawer. Finished Governor Winthrop desk. Chair in process of being up-bolstered.
Completed chair.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 17
HICKORY MANUFACTURING COMPANY'S FORMULA CONSISTS OF TWO PLANTS,
PLUS HARD WORK AND IDEAS, EQUAL SUCCESS
From a "run-down" plant with anti-quated
equipment to a modern plant well
equipped with the best in woodworking-machinery
and advanced manufacturing
methods in the comparatively short space
of sixteen years is the story of Hickory
Manufacturing Company.
The plants of Hickory Furniture Com-pany
and Martin Furniture Company,
who began operations in the early 1900's,
were acquired in April of 1944 by a
group of Hickory citizens headed by Cecil
T. Bost, A. Alex Shuford, Jr. and the late
Walker Lyerly. Then and there began
a long and expensive program of im-provements
and changes that has con-tinued
through the years. Besides much
new machinery and equipment, a number
of new buildings have been erected as
well as additions to existing buildings.
Among the new structures are a new and
modern office and show room building.
Another factory building was just recent-ly
completed and is now in use. The en-tire
plant is located in the Southeastern
section of Hickory on a seven acre tract
of land.
The Hickory Manufacturing Company
employs about 330 persons and manu-factures
bedroom, dining room and living
room furniture. Their line has been up-graded
in recent years and has many
times been the subject of feature articles
in national magazines and newspapers.
In addition to this, their product has been
displayed on television shows numerous
times.
About two years ago, they acquired
the services of Jim Peed as a full time
designer. Although a young man, Mr.
Peed has already gained national prom-inence
in the field of original and distinc-tive
designs and is also well known for
his ability in interior decorating. Among
his recent creations are the Signal Hill
and Faubourg collections of fine furni-ture.
Both of them are complete correlat-ed
groups of bedroom, dining room, living
room and occasional pieces.
The Signal Hill group is the oldest
and consequently the best known of the
two collections at the present time. This
group consists of about 70 pieces, many
of which are available in bright color
combinations. This, of course, gives one
an opportunity to express their taste with
design variations, enlivening color and
the contrasting natural wood finishes of
Butternut and Pecan. The design has
all of the airy freshness of the Far East.
The Faubourg group was shown for
the first time during the factory market
last October and created quite a sensa-tion.
It is a French collection of high
quality furniture. Many of these pieces
are also available in color in addition to
the natural wood finishes. There is an
antique white with gold and red over-tones.
A limited number of pieces can be
had in a royal red finish.
This company has manufactured din-ing
room and bedroom furniture since
the beginning. It was only about two
years ago that a limited number of liv-ing
room, or seating pieces were added to
the line. These were in the Danish Mod-ern
design with loose cushions. This part
of their manufacturing activity has been
developed and increased with other de-signs
and patterns and is now quite a
large part of their production.
In line with their established policy
of original designs, new things are being
developed for the Fall and Winter
markets.
C. T. Bost is president and treasurer
of the corporation and A. Alex Shuford,
Jr. is chairman of the board.
Placements in Manufacturing
Decreased Sharply
Seasonal tobacco processing place-ments
dropped from more than 8,000 in
September to about 1,800 in October.
This accounted for much of the over-all
decline in manufacturing and in total
nonfarm placements. Hiring in textile,
apparel, and furniture slowed down from
both September and October 1959, due
to adequate inventories and seasonal in-fluences.
Fine Products of Hickory Manufacturing Company, and trade-mark (inset).
PAGE 18 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Interesting Publications
Available From Bureau
Of Employment Security
The following- recently published pam-phlets
and booklets are available from
the Bureau of Employment Security,
Department of Labor, Washington 25,
D. C.
DDI—Bureau of Employment Security
Annual Report, Fiscal Year 1959.
FPC—Rural Development Program
News, No. 30, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
EEI—Cooperative Industry Relations
Programs have been developed with two
national trade associations about Em-ployment
Services available to their
members.
FRR—The Impact of Unemployment
in the 1958 Recession is the title of a
report by Wilbur J. Cohen, William
Haber, and Eva Mueller, Survey Re-search
Center, University of Michigan,
published by the Senate Special Com-mittee
on Unemployment Problems.
PMS—Economic Census 1958 Releases.
State reports, resulting from the 1958
Census of Business, Census of Manu-facturers,
and Census of Mineral In-dustries,
contain both State and area
data on employment and payrolls as well
as on other economic characteristics of
establishments covered by the Censuses.
PML—Military Prime Contract Awards
in Labor Surplus Areas, Office of the
Secretary of Defense. Information for
chronic labor surplus areas is tabulated
separately in both listings of this publi-cation.
For these publications, write directly
to the Bureau of Employment Security,
Department of Labor, Washington 25,
D. C. listing the three letter prefix of
every booklet and the full name (in
italics) of the report.
Right, and below are more products
of Hickory Manufacturing Company
Hickory Manufacturing Company plant. Hickory
i
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 19
Southern Desk Company Is Among The Nation's Top Five Furniture Producers
Eeported to be the largest manufac-turer
of church furniture in the world
and among the nation's top five produces
of furniture and seating for class-rooms,
dormitories, libraries, cafeterias, and
auditoriums, Southern Desk Company has
undergone twenty additions and expan-sions
since its beginning and is again
bursting at the seams. There are plans
underway at the present for a complete
new factory to relieve overcrowded con-ditions.
Since the Company offers more than
600 separate items in a variety of de-signs,
management
is faced with daily
production problems
uncommon to the
average furniture
maker. The wide
variety of items
which are available
in numerous designs
puts production al-most
in the custom
furniture division,
generally, and the IVEY
chancel furniture is almost completely
custom work.
To meet these complex production
problems, Southern Desk Company has
made tremendous growth in plant pro-duction,
physical facilities, and sales
activities in the past ten years. Ten years
ago the annual sales were $1.5 million.
During the past year sales totaled $8.25
million.
Special efforts have been made through
the installation of modern equipment and
methods to hold down the rising cost of
the finished product. Diversification has
aided in keeping cost down to a reason-able
level.
Southern Desk Company operates its
own stone fabricating department, its
own foundry, and lays its own plastic
tops, plywood panels and curved plywood
auditorium seats and backs. Through the
medium of a large and experienced de-sign
department, it is able to furnish the
customers with the assistance needed in
securing finished layouts of all types of
installations. It operates its own trans-portation
and installation services with
a fleet of twenty-three trucks and an
installation force of fifty persons almost
constantly on the move.
Southern Desk Company buys over
$1.25 million in top grade lumber each
year, totaling some 8.5 to 9 million board
feet. It maintains a constant inventory
of three million or more board feet,
valued at approximately $600,000. Ap-proximately
sixty-five percent of the
lumber used is oak, twenty-five percent
is hard maple, and the rest is mahogany
and other species.
When the lumber is first received into
the plant it is sent through a rough
double planer. Next, the boards are sent
to the cut-off saws to obtain the best
possible number of required lengths from
the lumber at hand. Then comes the
ripping in which five rip-saws are used.
The boards at this point are either sent
through the glue-jointer or the molder.
A Greenlee single surfacer and a Buss
double surfacer are used in the next step,
followed by two Greenlee double-end
tenoners.
Other steps which follow include trim-
Top (left) Sanding a pencil slot in a school desk top with a Pearson spool sander is Ray Cook, operator. (Right) Sketching a proposed modification is
Fred Marshall (left), design engineer, while W. H. Parks, vice president in charge of manufacturing, looks on. Bottom, Hand sanding seal coat on a pew
tront screen in -the finishing department. (Right) James C. Barnes is finishing pew ends as they pass on a conveyor chain through spray booth.
PAGE 20 THE £. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
PROGRESS PICTURES AT SOUTHERN DESK COMPANY—HICKORY.
Aerial view of Southern Desk Company's factory and facilities and the lumber yard at Hickory.
Top (L to R) One of two Columbia veneer presses in which the glue line is curved by a 10KW high frequency generator. Horace Keller is loading the unit.
(Right) 16-foot glue reels are being operated here by Orin McCray and Paul Christopher. Bottom, Sanding operations at Southern Desk Company are exten-sive.
Ralph Shrum (right) is shown feeding the 6-inch Molsander as Bill Ward off-loads. (Right) One of several such machines at Southern Desk, this Green-lee
545 double and tetoner is being operated by Pete Lowman.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 21
ming, boring and chucking- or shaping,
as the case might be in the production
of various items. Two hydraulic veneer
presses and a new Columbia Hot-Plate
Shuttle Press are used for laying ply-wood
panels and curved auditorium seats
and backs.
Approximately thirty different machines
are installed in the sanding department
ranging from a twenty-four foot belt
sander down to small drum sanders.
Since much of the Company's production
requires an extremely careful finishing
job, the sanding department is a critical
one. Southern Desk Company employs
about 800 at peak periods and has a pay-roll
of approximately $2.5 million per
year. It also has twenty-two full time
salesmen and eighteen distributors.
A subsidiary, Southern Dowel Com-pany,
located in Hickory adjacent to the
parent firm, turns out over three million
dowels per week and is said to be the
largest manufacturer of its kind in the
South. It produces standard three-eights
inch and seven-sixteenths inch dowels in
lengths from one to two and one-half
inches, as well as a limited supply of
dowel rods from three-fourths to one
inch in diameter.
Leon S. Ivey is President and General
Manager of the Company, Albert N.
Spencer is Executive Vice-President and
Treasurer, William H. Parks is Vice-
President and Plant Manager and J. D.
Green is Secretary.
The founder of Southern Desk Com-pany,
the late George F. Ivey of Hickory,
began his business career in textile mills.
In 1908 he invented a wooden lug strap
used in the mills. His venture into wood-working
began with making these straps,
picker sticks, and other loom supplies for
cotton mills. In 1911 Mr. Ivey decided to
begin making school desks, and the name
of Southern Desk Company was adopted.
When founded, the Company occupied
a small vertically planked building sixty-feet
long and forty feet wide. In just a
short time it was necessary to double
this space with an addition of the same
dimensions and construction.
In 1915 the first unit of the present
permanent brick construction was built.
On July 1, 1948 the Company was chang-ed
from a partnership to a corporation
with the founder as President. He con-tinued
to direct the growth and destiny
of the company until his death on Octo-ber
1, 1952, when Leon S. Ivey, his son,
suceeded him as President. In 1951 a new
plant was constructed to house the manu-facture
of the wooden dowel operation of
the Company. These dowel pins are used
in the manufacture of furniture. On Jan-uary
1, 1953, this operation was incor-porated
as the Southern Dowel Company
and is a subsidiary corporation of South-ern
Desk Company.
On August 19, 1952, the physical prop-erty
of the Winston Manufacturing Com-pany,
a woodworking plant located in
the adjacent town of Longview, about a
mile west of the main plant, was pur-chased.
This was incorporated as the
Southern Church Furniture Company on
the date of purchase. On September 1,
1955, this Company was merged with
Southern Desk Company as Plant No. 2
to provide better production coordination.
More Jobseekers
But Fewer Job Openings in October
More individuals filed new job appli-cations
than in September. Registered
applicants actively seeking jobs were
also more numerous. This moderate rise,
coupled with an even greater decline in
job openings, resulted in a ratio of 18.4
applicants for each available nonfarm
job opening at end of October as com-pared
with 13.8 applicants a month
earlier and in October 1959.
Top (left) Lumber inventory of three million ooard feet of Appalachian hardwoods and mahogany is maintained. Two Ross 9-ton lumber lifts are used
in yard handling. (Right) Auditorium seats are being finished here in a 24-foot DeVilbiss water wash spray booth. Bottom, Feeding drawer sides into a
6-inch Mattison molder are Fred Icard (left) and Glenn Matthews. (Right) Spot welding steel chair frames on a Seiake Kva welder are craftsmen Clyde
Jolly and Arthur Jenkins.
PAGE 22 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Whether You Want to Recline, Vibrate, or Swivel — CaliLounger Makes It!
CaliLounger, Inc. located at Kerners-ville,
N. C, started production opera-tions
in February of 1957. Progress has
been rapid where today CaliLounger
builds the worlds finest vibrating, reclin-ing
and swivel rocker chairs.
CaliLounger products are distributed
at leading stores throughout the United
States. Warehouses are maintained at
many leading cities throughout the
United States.
Quality is a CaliLounger motto and is
apparent upon comparison with other
products. An example of the quality of
our product is apparent when one con-siders
that they have been ordered by the
General Services Administration for use
by our armed forces.
Some of the fine chairs manufactured by CaliLounger or Kcrno;sviile.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 23
Everyone at CaliLounger takes pride
in the quality of workmanship. Many of
our people have years of furniture manu-facturing
- business. Our people are local
residents, active in community, govern-mental
and religious affairs.
Pictured on pages with this article are
many of the products manufactured by
this Kernersville Company. From the
drawing table to the packing case, all
work on the chairs is done in the factory
by experienced personnel who pride
themselves on their workmanship.
Frame welding is done on special
welding machines which instantly bond
two pieces of metal together into a
single piece which is stronger than the
original. The steel fabrications are
placed in a manually held jig and the
welders make the necessary welds in an
instant. While electric welding is used in
the majority of operations, some of the
more delicate and tediuous jobs are done
by acetelyne torch. These employes are
men with years of experience in this
exacting work.
Whether you desire one of the small
cocktail swivels or one of the sumptuous
massage easy chairs, the same care goes
into its manufacture. Another unique
feature of the chairs manufactured by
this company is that only the addition
of a small, fractional horsepower motor
is necessary to give you a vibrating
massage when the chair has been built
by CaliLounger. All chairs may be
brought with or without the motor, and
it may be added at a later date if not
wanted at the time of the original pur-chase.
All factory working spaces are large,
airy in summer and warm in winter.
Plenty of space is allotted each crafts-man
whether he be in the wood-working
shop, the steel fabricating unit, or the
cutting room where thousands of yards
of lovely materials are stored and which
are used to upholster the chairs.
Airfoam as well as other substances
are used for upholstering and the ma-terials
used depend upon the choice of
the purchasers.
In the cloth or fabric room, cutters
follow patterns laid on top of hundreds
of pieces of fabric and with special
cutting machines cut a couple of hundred
sets of coverings at the time. These are
carefully inspected prior to and after
application to the chairs. Some of the
covers have to be vulcanized in special
presses which give a richer appearance
and longer lasting, more serviceable unit
for customers.
Visitors to the plant say they have
never seen a group of people so dedi-cated
to turning out a good product in
such a short time. Evidence of the
quality is reinforced by the steady in-crease
of orders which are received each
month. Most of the growth is attributed
to the product, but the rest of the credit
must go to the managerial staff of the
company.
Officers of CaliLounger, Inc.: C. H.
Nyssen, President; R. E. Allamon, Gen-eral
Manager; R. C. Bourdon, Vice Presi-dent;
F. A. Carstensen, Sales Manager,
and E. G. Moorman, Secretary-Treasurer.
CaliLounger employees take pride in products
like these. Five more chairs with which CaliLounger has made hits.
PAGE 24 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Caldwell Furniture Company, Maker of Fine Furniture Since January 15, 1909
Caldwell Furniture Company, Lenoir,
was organized and incorporated January
15, 1909 and currently is celebrating its
fifty-first year of continuous operation
in the manufacture of quality furniture.
Both bedroom and dining room furniture
are produced in a wide selection of fin-ishes
in Modern and Traditional styles.
Its products are sold throughout the
United States with fifty sales representa-tives
covering the entire country. Ware-houses
are located in principal cities and
permanent showrooms are maintained in
New York, Chicago, High Point, Los
Angeles, San Franciso, and in its own
showrooms at the factory.
Present officers are A. L. Moore, presi-dent;
J. M. Gossler, vice-president and
treasurer; J. M. Gossler, Jr., secretary
and assistant treasurer; John R. Beard,
vice-president and general manager, and
T. W. Shuford, Jr., assistant vice-presi-dent
in charge of sales.
In recent years the Company has com-pleted
a program of rebuilding and mod-ernizing
all buildings to brick and steel
construction with all departments fully
conveyorized and utilizing the most mod-ern
machinery and equipment through-out.
The plant has a floor space of 497,-
000 square feet and employs over 500
workers. The Company operates its own
Veneer Mill Plant a few miles east of
Lenoir producing cross-banding veneer,
manufactures its own plywood, and in
1956 added a modern Chip Core Plant
to its operation in Lenoir. In addition to
supplying its own needs, chip-core and
plywood produced are also sold to other
manufacturers.
"Furniture South" Magazine
Same Age As Jack Benny
"Furniture South" magazine, with
executive offices in the Exposition Build-ing
at High Point, reached the age of
39 this year. Along with Jack Benny it
can henceforth celebrate the anniversary
of its 39th birthday, or it can go on to
the age of 40 where life is supposed to
begin.
Many of the magazine's former editors
have gone on to bigger things. Harold
Bennett who heads Bennett Advertising
is one. Others head advertising agencies
in other states, are in the newspaper
and radio fields and all are writers of
note in their own right.
Some of the fine suites manufactured by Caldwell Furniture Company of Lenoir. Plant is pictured in lower right hand corner.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 25
3 Employes +$22r000 +17 Years; Equals 200 Employes & $1 Million at Hammary
Article and Pictures by
John A. Alicki, Personnel Director
Hammary Manufacturing Corporation
first began its operations 17 years ago as
Hammary Manufacturing Company,
Hamilton L. Bruce, proprietor, in a most
humble manner and a very small factory
located in an alley between Harper and
West Avenues in downtown Lenoir,
North Carolina. At that time there were
only three employees. These were Mr.
Hamilton L. Bruce, and two others. The
principal item of manufacture was the
rockerless rocker lawn chairs. Total op-
1. General view of finishing end secfion of Machine Department. 2. Gene Williams, Bynum Pennell, Henry Rich and Bob Cannon, Handling and Packing
Crew with imported marble. 3. Sherril Greene, Dewey Cannon, Roby Cannon, Theodore Greene, packing crew, with Foreman Harly Hodge. 4. Hugh
Watson, machine set-up man, setting up the horizontal automatic boring machine. 5. Ray Austin, side stroke operator. Sanding Dept., inspecting a side
rail which is a component part of a table. Edd Nelson, Jr. is supervising foreman. 6. Donald McCall, John McLean and Richard Bumgarner, Sanding Dept.
Employees are operating a Sherrill flat sander. 7. Clyde Whittington, Larry Bryant, Wade Austin, foreman; Paul Starnes and Donald Triplett, finishing
dept. Blending room employees blending uniform colors into the table. 8. Tommy Martin, David Craia, Billy German, Philmore Adams, and Harley Blevins,
Finishing Dept., rub room employees cleaning excessive fine oils and rubbing compounds off tables. 9. Edward Allen and Lex Hamby, stain sprayers. 10.
Unfinished Hammary French Provincial cocktail tables on assembly line in Cabinet Dept. moving toward Finishing Department. 11. George Cowley, laying
up lumber for cut-off saw. Bill Chapman, cut-off saw operator is in the background. 12. Some of the office employees: Joyce Story, Brenda Bradshaw,
Elizabeth Denny, Nancy Steele, Madeline Knight, and Barbara Clark. 13. Hammary truck backing toward Shipping Dept. and loading ramp. 14. Part of the
main office building, grounds, road and parking space. 15. Ronnie Burchette, George Lamberth and George Woods, Jr., lumber yard employees unloading
silver leaf maple lumber from Missouri. 16. Exterior view of the main office.
PAGE 26 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
1. The accounts receivable office section and left to right are Ruby Jones, credit manager and secretary Joyce Story. 2. Some of the office employees.
(Left) Lois Benfield and Joyce Story, (Right) Brenda Bradshaw and Peggy Hawkins. 3. Hammary plant showroom. 4. Hammory Manufacturing Corpora-tion's
main offices and showrooms. 5, 6, 7, & 8 depict Hammary tables.
More products of Hammary Manufacturing are shown above.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 27
HAMMARY DAILY ACTIVITIES
1. Some Hammary employees punching out after the day's work. 2. Lumber yard and new shed for storing dry lumber. 3. Cody Lowe, Jr., purchasing agent,
and Charles "Bill" McMillan, plant superintendent discuss lumber production requirements. 4. Receiving end of machine department and in the background
are part of the dry ki'ns and warehouse area. 5. In the Machine Department is operator Austin Green for hand shaper machine. 6. Lawrence Abernathy,
operates vertical shaper. As he works the lines of the French Provincial come out in the side rails for the tables. 7. Busalee Gragg, Ray Shumate, and
Wade Austin, finishing Department foreman. Gragg is using a tooling iron and is applying a 24 carat gold tool on a leather top table. 8. Walter Taylor,
Maintenance Department Machinist, works on a Delta Drill Press. Note the eye protective measures bein3 taken. Safety is uppermost at Hammary. 9.
Taking a break are employees David Craig, Philmore Adams, Lynn Dishman, Basil Kirby, Jay Curtis, and Fred Holbrook. 10. Some of the Shipping
Department employees (L to R) Kenneth Bradshaw, Marshall Bradshaw, Harry CEontz, Willie Taylor, Bob Hass, Lonnine Bradshaw, Ronnie Everhart, Lex
Adkins, foreman, and Charles Harmon. 11. Nancy Steele handling the switchboard. 12. Shown are Robert Nelson, Clarence Greene, Barney Cooke, Cabinet
Department foreman, Herbet Land, and Johnnie Miller, Inspector. This is part of the table assembling section. In the foreground can be seen the air
clamp unit with the table in bottom side position. This unit clamps all table leg joints into table rails in one operation. 13. (L to R) Banner Sanders,
Machine Dept., and Charles R. McMillan, Plant Superintendent. 14. Here are seen Line Rip Saw Operator Bill Gilbert and Helper or Tail Rip Saw Operator
Fred Greer. 15. Turning Lathe Operator Zee Baker. 16. Paul Sanders, Roy Gragg, Jimmy Shell and Ralph Shell are hand carving operators in the Machine
Department,
North Carolina State Library
Raieigh
PAGE 28 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
erational cost then amounted to over
$22,000.00 per annum.
In 1945, the Hammary Manufacturing-
Company was incorporated and Mr.
Hamilton L. Bruce was elected as cor-poration
president. The new corporation
then built a new factory on a 12 acre site
off the Hickory Road now known as U. S.
Highway 321A, four miles East of Lenoir,
North Carolina. Principal product of
manufacture at the new plant was and
still is the finest quality type occasional
tables in the South.
Since then, they have gradually ex-panded
and improved their plant facilities
which today include the Main Offices and
Showroom building, Machine Department
building housing the most efficient wood-working
machines and operators avail-able,
Cabinet and Sanding Department
building employing the most experienced
operators in the field of sanding and as-sembling
operations in the State, Finish-ing
Department building consisting of
stain, filler and lacquers spray booths,
dry ovens, extreme dry air compart-ments,
fine hand sanding facilities, wash
ccat and spray operations which contain
the wood grain raising substance. Var-ious
expert operated processes in clean-ing,
drying, sealing, shading, lacquering,
hand rubbing, and buffing. Also, a glazing-process
for the purpose of obtaining var-ious
true colors of cherry, maple, ma-hogany,
walnut, pecan, antique white,
and many others. In addition, this depart-ment
maintains a complete genuine
leather finishing operation. There are
modern paint storage facilities, a new
lumber storage area and sheds, boiler-room
building and dry kilns. Then, there
is the Packing and Shipping Department
building which also houses an imported
marble supply section. The marble is im-ported
from Portugal and Italy, and is
in great demand by the buyers of Ham-mary
marble top tables. Other facilities
consists of warehouses, rail and truck
loading and unloading ramps, Mainten-ance
Department building, modern fire-prevention
equipment, excellent water
facilities as well as electrical power sup-ply,
and paved roads with ample parking-facilities.
Recently, they have added their
own fleet of trucks, expanded their ware-house
facilities, and completed building
an additional wing to the Finishing De-partment
building.
In November 1957, Hammary Manu-facturing
Corporation amalgamated its
sales, designs, and production facilities
with the Imperial Furniture Company
of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This amalga-mation
has made the associated firms one
of the largest table producers in the
nation.
Today Hammary Manufacturing Cor-poration
is a real entity in the table
manufacturing business, holding a most
prominent position sales wise with the
best furniture and department stores
across the nation. Most HAMMARY
TABLES are shown at the Furniture
Market exhibits during April and Octo-ber
at their own showrooms at the Ham-mary
Plant in Lenoir. In January and
June, in the Hammary space in the
Southern Furniture Exposition Building,
High Point, North Carolina, as well as
in the American Furniture Mart Build-ing
in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York.
Its sales force extends throughout the
United States and Canada.
Plant inventory and equipment is valu-ed
well over $1,000,000.00. Its payroll
for over 200 employees amounts to over
three quarter million dollars per annum.
They are members of the National As-sociation
of Manufacturers and the
Southern Furniture Manufacturer's As-sociation.
Officers of the Corporation are: Mr.
Hamilton L. Bruce, President and Gen-eral
Manager; Mr. Thomas G. Terrell,
Vice-President and Production Manager;
Mr. James C. Sullivan, Treasurer; Mrs.
Mary Buys Bruce, Secretary.
NOTE: All photos by John A. Alicki,
Personnel Director.
World's Largest Bureau
Built in 1926 and used until 1951 as
the office of the High Point Chamber of
Commerce, a bureau 22 feet high, in-cluding
a 16-foot mirror, 27 feet wide
and 14 feet deep is the world's largest.
It was moved five blocks from its
original location to the corner of Hamil-ton
and Howell Streets where it serves
as headquarters for the High Point and
State Junior Chambers of Commerce
Headquarters.
1. Shown in front of the Showroom Building of Hammary are office employees Nancy Steele, and
and Finishing Dept. Foreman Wade Austin discuss the operation. 3. Showroom of the plant. 4. (L
Brenda Bradshaw. 2. Factory Office Shirley Hemphill, |
_ to Ft) President Bruce, Treasurer James Sullivan, and I
Vice President Thomas G. Terrell who is also production manager. 5, 6, 7, & 8 are more beautiful Hammary tables.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 29
Philpott Furniture Corporation Was Organized In 1955 On A 25-Acre Plot
main building-,
In 1955, United Furniture Corporation
purchased the twenty-five acres and
buildings on which were located the idle
Barbet Cotton Mills and a new corpora-tion—
Philpott Furniture Corporation
—
was organized. It was found that the
ninety thousand square
feet on three levels,
could be well adapt-ed
to a furniture
operation, with min-or
changes.
Adjacent to the old
4§*. building was a mill
, ****" pond which the new
^*.*w- «. owners drained and
fm^^U filled in. On part of
\ ^^k % I^*(i, this tract, dry-kilns
t-is3^k A aBfife and cooling sheds
were erected and the
was reserved for lumber
MYERS
remainder
storage.
A three-story brick and concrete struc-ture
was built at one end of the old
building and with the addition of other
building's, including the dry kilns and
storage buildings, the plant began opera-tions
in July, 1956. A number of experi-enced
workers and foremen had been
transferred from the United plant to
help get production started.
For the fast and efficient handling of
incoming lumber, Philpott shares with
United a unique facility. Most lumber
arrives on pallets by truck. A fork lift
truck removes the lumber from the
trucks in a matter of minutes. The lum-ber
is placed at the "feed" end of a
belt-conveyor and the lumber inspector
measures and grades each piece of lum-ber
as it moves along the conveyor to
the automatic lumber stacker. When a
stack of lumber has been thus accumulat-ed,
a fork lift truck moves it to the
lumber storage area where it is allowed
to air dry before being kiln dried as
needed. Then the lumber is ready for the
cut-off saw.
In the Rough End Department rough
lumber is raised by an elevator from the
kiln level to the processing area. After
passing through one of the cut-off saws
the only belt-conveyor in the plant car-ries
the lumber to the planer.
The Finishing and Rubbing Depart-ments
are located on the top floor of the
main building. The spray booths are of
the latest waterfall type with powerful
exhaust fans drawing the air and vapors
through the falling water and then up
and out through the roof. Each piece of
electrical equipment is sealed, with
switches and bulbs spark-proof.
In spite of the fact that the machinery
and equipment represent the very latest
in efficient wood-working technique, a
large amount of hand work goes into the
furniture manufactured by Philpott.
There is no conveyor system with the ex-ception
of the belt conveyor located in
the Rough End Department. This is pos-sible
because the type of furniture which
the firm makes does not lend itself to be-ing
conveyorized.
Philpott Furniture Corporation is an
affiliate of United Furniture Corporation
and represents an originial investment
of one million dollars. Philpott's pro-ducts,
a high grade of bedroom and
dining room furniture, are sold under the
United trade-name by United's sales or-ganization.
Officers of United hold the same posi-tions
in the Philpott firm. Superintendent
at Philpott is A. B. Myers, who manages
the plant with a current work force of
over 300 people.
Pictures of Philpott Furniture Plant
and other products may be seen on
next page.
Pieces from Philpott Furniture's Cumberland Collection in Mellow Pecan.
PAGE 30 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
WILMINGTON STORY
—Continued from page 5
—
ranks only sixth in size among the manu-facturing
industries, it has contributed
greatly to the area's manufacturing
growth in recent years. Only a few years
ago, this industry's employment was
practically nil. Today, Babcock and Wil-cox
Company, Inc., is the dominant em-ployer
in this group and one of the major
establishments in the Area.
The Area's large textile employment
is concentrated in four plants as follows:
the Spofford Mills, Inc., which makes
broadwoven cotton fabrics; Timme Corp.,
which manufactures broadwoven fabrics
chiefly of man-made fibers; Diamond
Mills Corp., a seamless hosiery plant;
and the lace goods plant of Mozur Laces,
Inc. Illustrative of the growth in textile
employment in the Area is its 83 per
cent rise from 1950 to the first quarter
of 1960 as compared with a state-wide
loss of 2.5 per cent for this industry.
The apparel division, which now con-sists
of seven plants, has also enjoyed a
sharp gain over the years, although not
as great as the state-wide gain—63 vs
164 per cent. Most of these apparel firms
are large, such as Garver Mfg. Corp. and
Southland Mfg. Co., which make sport
shirts, France Neckwear Mfg. Co., and
the Mojud Lingerie plant.
Employment in the food products divi-sion
increased 45 per cent from 1950 to
1960 as compared with a 67 per cent
growth for the State. Nevertheless, this
diversified division provides a number of
jobs for workers in the Area. There are
meat packers, such as Wilmington Pack-ing
and Wanets Sausage; dairy plants,
such as National Dairy; bakeries, such
as American Bakeries, Foxs Royal and
National Biscuit; bottling plants; et
cetera.
The lumber and wood products in-dustry
has declined in New Hanover as
it has statewide during the 1950-1960
period, only at a greater rate—41 per
cent vs. 16 per cent. Nevertheless, this
division still employs an average of
about 675 workers.
The widest divergence between local
and state employment trends occurred
in chemicals as New Hanover suffered a
14 per cent decline between 1950 and
1960 as compared with a significant 42
per cent rise for the State. It should be
recognized, however, that fertilizer, the
branch of the industry which dominates
in the Wilmington Area, has not been
one of the chemical segments showing
the best gains, as for example synthetic
fibers.
While county-wide insured employ-ment
has slightly exceed the state-wide
growth during the past decade, what has
the population been doing? It also has
been rising at a slightly faster rate;
namely 13.4 per cent as compared with
12.2 per cent for the state.
In 1959, workers in insured employ-ment
in New Hanover County received
wage payments totaling $46.6 million
which represented a gain of 94 per cent
over wages received in 1950. During the
same period, the state-wide gain in in-sured
wage payments was only 91 per-cent.
The average weekly earnings per
worker in New Hanover, nevertheless,
was only $60.51 in 1959/ as compared with
$67.13 for the State. Per capita income
figures tell a different story, however.
According to the per capita income study
made by the State Department of Tax
Research, New Hanover had a per capita
income of $1,881 in 1958 as compared
with a state-wide average of only $1,420;
and the County ranked fourth in the
State with only Mecklenburg, Forsyth
and Guilford having higher per capita
income. Moreover, based on earlier per
—See WILMINGTON, page 34—
B^WMNnf™" ""
*
I i '*»*"^ "
|i[ :"*-* j^*
«-»
=
jl _.* -
IMJBBH^^^^^*»->
Top: The Florentine Group—Antique Fruitwood Finish on Cherry.
Bottom: An off-white French Provenciol bedroom group—The Parisian.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 31
PEERLESS HAS FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN MATTRESS MAKING
MOFFITT
The Peerless Mattress Company was
incorporated on July 22, 1902. The in-corporators
were W. E. Holt, Jr., C. A.
Hunt, Jr., Joe V. Moffitt, Sr., J. N. Men-denhall,
and L. L. Barbee, all of Lexing-ton.
On February 10, 1915, J. V. Moffitt
signed a consent to dissolution as sole
owner of all stock. The plant had been
totally destroyed by
fire in late January
or early February
of the same year.
The plant was re-built
shortly after
the fire.
The original plant
had started opera-tions
in July, 1902,
in the old brick a-cademy
building be-tween
Seventh and
Eighth Avenues on South Main Street
in Lexington.
Peerless is apparently the pioneer
manufacturer of bedding in the two
Carolinas.
Peerless was again incorporated on
July 1, 1946, with paid in capital stock of
$200,000. At that time Peerless Mattress
Company was a manufacturer of mat-tresses
and box springs and a distributor
of Armstrong and Congoleum Nairn and
Bird & Son Floor Products.
J. V. Moffitt, Sr. died on September
21, 1948. He was succeeded by Mrs. J. V.
Moffitt, Sr. as president of the company.
The writer retained the position of sec-retary-
treasurer.
On January 1, 1953, Peerless Mattress
Company joined the Sealy licensee group.
Sealy is a combination of 28 U. S. and
five Canadian plants, banded together to
manufacture a uniform nationally adver-tised
product. Sealy, Incorporated, main-tains
offices at 666 North Lake Shore
Drive, Chicago, Illinois.
With the Sealy franchise the business
of Peerless Mattress Company has ap-proximately
tripled. The principal pro-duct
is, of course, the Sealy Posturepedic
innerspring mattress, glossy photo of
which is enclosed.
A separate corporation was formed on
January 1, 1953, titled "Sealy of the
Carolinas, Incorporated", the capital
stock of which is owned by Peerless Mat-tress
Company.
Two years later another separate cor-poration,
Peerless, Incorporated, for the
distribution of floor covering, with ware-houses
at 219 South Caldwell Street in
Charlotte and 309 East Green Street in
High Point, was formed. This corpora-tion
is also owned outright by Peerless
Mattress Company.
Peerless Mattress Company and its
subsidiaries today employ slightly more
than 100 people. The nationally adver-tised
Sealy product is offered in North
and South Carolina. The Peerless Mat-tress
Company private brand product is
also offered in the same states and in
Virginia, West Virginia, and Georgia. Ten
trucks, each with a capacity of approxi-mately
eighty matresses or box springs,
are operated for the delivery of the com-pany
bedding product to retail furniture
stores. There are approximately 57,000
square feet of floor space in the complete-ly
conveyorized factory building and
warehouses in Lexington. Distribution
warehouses are operated by the company
in Charlotte, High Point, Greenville, N.
C, Greenville, S. C, and Columbia, S. C.
Peerless Product
"The Chair of
Thomasville"
"The Chair of Thomasville" has long
been the symbol of the principal industry
in the City of Thomasville. The first
chair, located in the center of the com-munity
between the railroad and the
main street, was erected in September,
1922. Because of deterioration, this chair
was removed in the 1935-36 period and
in 1949 the construction of a larger and
a more permanent chair was completed.
The first chair contained enough lum-ber
to manufacture 100 ordinary chairs.
It was 13 feet high, with the seat six
feet above the foundation; front legs
were six feet high, six feet apart in the
front and six and one-half feet apart in
the back. Construction of this chair re-quired
three men working 10 hours a
day for one week in the plant of the
Thomasville Chair Co. Expense of mak-ing
this chair was borne by Col. Frank S.
Lambeth, secretary and treasurer of the
Standard Chair Co., and Charles F.
Finch, vice-president and manager of
the Thomasville Chair Co.
The new chair of steel and concrete
is an exact duplication of the original
Duncan Phyfe as displayed in Washing-ton
and is built six times as large as the
original in all proportions. The back
legs are 18 feet high and the front legs
are nine feet high; the front legs are
9 3/4ths. feet apart and the back legs
are 10% feet apart. The chair is built
on four steel and concrete pedestals two
feet by four feet and 12 feet from the
ground. Around these pedestals is built
a base 22 feet square with concave
corners; 16 inch solid brich wall veneered
with eight inch limestone blocks, with
carving and molding and around the top
are eight carved eagles, one in the center
of each of the four sides and one in the
center of each of the concave corners.
This present chair was built by a local
commercial artist and one full-time and
one part-time helper. It is hand molded
around a steel frame with a mixture of
concrete and granite dust, with openings
to fill the inside, thus making a solid
structure. The time required for con-struction
was approximately ten months.
This new project, supervised by the
Thomasville Chamber of Commerce, was
made possible by the cooperation of the
city, industry, local business firms and in-dividual
citizens.
On the floor of the base is a bronze
plaque bearing the following inscription:
"The Chair" of Thomasville—The
Chair is an exemplar and an inspira-tion
for the future generations to
emulate and perpetuate the achieve-ments
of our time-honored furniture
designers and craftsmen. . . . The
original chair was the creation of the
famous American designer, Duncan
Phyfe. 1950. Thomas Johnson, Del.,
James Harvey, Sculp.
PAGE 32 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
UNITED FURNITURE CORPORATION WAS ORGANIZED IN 1920 BY PHILPOTT
B. C. PHILPOTT
United Furniture Corporation had its
beginning in the latter part of 1920 when
B. C. Philpott, Sr., and associates of Bas-sett,
Virginia, purchased the idle Atlas
Furniture Company plant at Lexington,
North Carolina. A new company, United
Furniture Company, was organized im-mediately,
and Mr.
Philpott moved to
North Carolina to
serve as president of
the new manufac-turing
concern. In
spite of the fact that
operations were be-gun
during the re-cession
period fol-lowing
World War I,
the company was
successful from the
beginning.
The plant which originally consisted
of two framed buildings connected by a
tram-way, was improved and expanded
throughout the years. During this time
the company manufactured medium-priced
household bedroom furniture.
Just as the company was moving ag-gressively
ahead in the furniture indus-try,
disaster struck suddenly. Although
the plant was sprinklered, a fire broke
out in the finishing
room shortly after
midnight on May 1,
1936, completely de-stroying
the plant
and much of the
lumber on the com-pany's
yard in Lex-ington's
biggest fire.
Undaunted, in the
fall of that same
year, Mr. Philpott,
c. philpott along with his sons
and other associates, purchased the Elk
Furniture Company, which was located
near the site of the destroyed United
Plant. The new United Furniture Cor-poration
then came into being. This
plant, which in 1936 consisted of framed
buildings has been completely renovated
PHILPOTT
and expanded over a period of years and
is now completely bricked in.
Much additional adjacent property has
been purchased from time to time on
which additional buildings have been
erected to keep pace with the company's
growth.
One interesting fea-ture
of the com-pany's
physical plant
is a novel and prac-tical
undei'ground
tunnel which con-tains
a double-track
conveyor connecting
the packing room
with the warehouse.
The tunnel passes
under a Lexington
city street although
few motorists are aware that the tunnel
exists. The company had to secure special
permission from the City of Lexington
to construct the tunnel.
In 1955, upon the death of the founder
of the company, his eldest son, H. Cloyd
Philpott, was named Chairman of the
Board while continuing in his position as
President. Cloyd joined the company in
the late 1920's and gained experience in
various departments while serving as
Secretary-Treasurer.
Three of the other
sons of the founder
are active in the
company. J. Alvin
and Hubert J. Phil-pott
serve as Vice-
Presidents and J.
Robert Philpott is
Secretary-Treasurer.
Robert is currently
serving as President
H. J. philpott of the Southern
Furniture Manufacturer's Association, a
post Cloyd also held previously.
R. L. "Jack" Myers, a native of Thom-asville,
serves as Superintendent of Unit-ed
as well as General Manager of United
and its affiliate, Philpott Furniture Cor-poration.
J. A. PHILPOTT
With the increasing importance of
North Carolina as a Market Center, Unit-ed
has had to constantly enlarge its
showroom space in Lexington. The
fourth expansion resulted in the com-pletion
of a large, modern showroom
building which was opened for the first
time at the October
Market in 1959.
The Showroom, ad-joining
the com-pany's
offices, has
twenty - thousand
square feet for dis-play
purposes. In
addition, the build-ing
contains an at-tractive
foyer and
reception room, a
spacious Salesmen's room, conference
rooms, a kitchen and dining room.
In planning new patterns, many ques-tions
are carefully checked at the blue-print
stage. For instance, will it be prac-tical
from the standpoint of production?
Will it give good service to the consum-er?
Will it sell? The careful scrutiny
of construction and design eliminates
many undesirable and impractical fea-tures
before actual production is begun.
United has a de-sign
staff of three
men who are well-known
in their field.
The designer is
given an idea of the
type of bedroom or
dining room furni-ture
the firm feels
will be profitable to
place on the market.
Then the designer
goes to work, hav-ing
many conferences with company of-ficials
over various details of the design.
Before reaching a decision on a new
design, United makes dozens of experi-mental
models checking every detail
from the standpoint of salability and
consumer acceptance. This is an indica-tion
of the vast amount of experimental
R. L. MYERS
y n l T | d FtfArrnrtf €#iit"<E>
'" :: ^:
United's Plant. The concrete block portion in the foreground is the shipping department. The center area is the finishing room.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 33
research behind the scenes at United to
make sure that each new pattern will
prove a fast seller on the customer's
floors.
Hundreds of colors are tested on a
wide variety of woods before any de-cisions
are reached as to the woods and
finishes for new patterns. New hardware
in hundreds of designs and finishes is
carefully considered before selections are
finally made.
Only high-grade lumber is used in
United's production, and scientifically-controlled
drying from the time the
lumber enters United's kilns assures
maximum utilization of the board and
eliminates trouble which occurs when
improperly seasoned lumber is used. The
rough lumber is carried to the rip-saws
of United's mill room by belt conveyor,
thereby reducing time and labor in-volved
in this particular operation.
Selected veneers are used and these
veneers, along with core stock, are pro-cessed
in the large hot plate press which
eliminates peeling or lifting of veneers
in the finished product. After all parts of
the machine panels are made up, smooth
surfaces and proper fittings are assured
when all parts are carefully sanded many
times in the modern sanding room.
The furniture parts are then ready to
be assembled by the trained and experi-enced
case-fitters in the cabinet room.
All cases are custom-fitted to insure the
beauty and servicability of each piece
of furniture.
With careful inspection in each depart-ment,
the assembled furniture moves
from the cabinet room into the finishing
room where each item is placed on one
of the trays of the large conveyor sys-tem.
After each spraying operation in
the finishing room, the furniture passes
on the conveyor through large ovens
which are scientifically controlled to
guarantee the desired finish. After the
filling material is applied, each piece of
furniture is hand rubbed while it is still
on the conveyor to remove any excess
filler. Upon completion of the finishing
operations and after the finish has been
allowed to dry, the furniture moves to
the rubbing room where each piece is
taken off the conveyor and carefully
hand rubbed and polished for lasting-beauty.
The packing room receives the furni-ture
next, and the average consumer
would be amazed if she were to see the
furniture being packed. Padding ma-terials,
corner braces, and containers
which must meet rigid requirements are
all used to pack each piece of furniture
with such care that the consumer has no
doubt that the furniture will be on its
way in excellent condition and will quick-ly
reach its destination whether by rail
or by truck.
United Furniture employs over 500
people, many of whom were with the
company before the original plant burn-ed.
An efficient sales organization covers
the entire United States and parts of
Canada, and the company ships into all
of these areas and into South America.
Today, United produces a wide variety
of bedroom and dining room furniture in
the medium-priced bracket. The styles
represented are many, including Modern,
Contemporary, Colonial, Ranch, French
Provincial, Italian Provincial, and Dan-ish
among others.
Nationally advertised in both trade and
consumer publications, United's products
are well known. One of United's trade-marks
features a small boy and small girl
dressed in grown-up wedding attire under
the caption: "Sooner or later they all say
'LET'S GET UNITED'". United Furni-ture
Corporation is happy and proud that
many hundreds of thousands of consum-ers
have actively adopted this theme:
"LET'S GET UNITED!"
New Unemployment
Starts Seasonal Climb
An average of 3,265 new claims were
filed weekly during October. This is not
only one-third higher than September
but is also 39 per cent over the October
1959 rate. Several factors are responsi-ble
for this rise. Construction work
begins to slacken as cold weather ap-proaches
which results in a decided in-crease
in construction claims. The rise
in claims from food products was also
seasonal. Claimants with job ties filed
in significant numbers, especially in the
textile, apparel and furniture industries.
Nevertheless, perhaps the strongest fac-tor
in the October rise, is the gradual
closing of the tobacco markets and pro-cessing
plants. In October an average
of 100 tobacco claimants filed new
claims each week as compared with only
35 in September.
Bunk bed ensemble from a popular ash ranch suite. Beds can be used as twin beds if desired.
PAGE 34 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
WILMINGTON STORY
—Continued from page 30
—
capita income studies by Barclay Gibbs
Jones, UNC, it is significant to note that
New Hanover's per capita income has
improved from 14th place in 1950, to 8th
in 1954, and now, according to the Tax
Research study, to 4th in 1958.
From the latest available figures on
labor supply, the Area has ample labor
Table I
A Comparative Study of the Growth of Insured Employment and Wages
in New Hanover County and North Carolina in Terms of Per Cent Gains From 1950
Number of Avg. M jnthly Avg. Weekly Earnings
Year and Major Ind jstry Reporting
N. H.
Units
N. C.
Employment
N. H. N. C.
Total Wages Per Worker
N. H. N. C. N. H. N. C.
All Industries
—
1959 101.6% 119.3% 33.6% 33.1% 94.1% 91.0% 45.4% 43.5%
1956 98.9 102.5 33.2 27.6 78.4 61.8 33.9 26.8
*1953 16.6 11.6 19.1 10.2 47.8 27.1 24.1 15.3
Construction
—
1959 173.0 171.3 50.6 38.7 89.5 92.1 25.9 38.5
1956 140.5 143.7 31.4 30.0 62.3 63.8 23.5 26.0
1953 27.0 17.9 47.9 0.6 88.9 26.5 27.8 25.8
Manufacturing
1959 19.2 50.0 27.9 22.3 93.4 75.5 51.2 43.5
1956 19.2 41.8 25.4 16.5 76.5 46.9 40.8 26.1
1953 11.5 10.1 23.7 9 5 62.7 23.2 31.4 12.5
Utilities
1959 121.7 129.1 46.5 52.9 126.9 157.4 54.9 68.4
1956 69.6 85.0 14.2 37.2 67.3 96.0 46.6 42.9
H953 52.2 10.1 3.0 22.2 17.2 52.3 13.8 24.7
Trade
—
1959 95.3 128.6 28.8 48.7 76.0 102.7 36.7 36.3
1956 109.4 115.3 46.8 47.2 81.1 79.7 23.4 22.1
1953 12.4 11.7 18.1 10.7 37.7 27.4 16.6 15.1
Finance
—
1959 178.9 194.1 64.9 103.3 142.5 190.1 47.1 42.7
1956 178.9 145.2 67.8 76.6 126.7 126.8 135.1 28.5
1953 21.1 17.0 1.3 24.7 33.6 48.4 31.9 19.0
Service & Other —1959 173.2 173.4 32.6 40.9 100.4 97.8 51.1 40.3
1956 148.8 153.6 33.9 48.2 87.9 96.5 40.3 32.6
1953 12.2 8.1 5.1 10.1 27.3 33.3 21.0 21.0
* Computed From Revised Dat;
for an employment expansion. In Sep-tember
1960, the industrial labor supply
was estimated at over 1,800, and in the
three county area—New Hanover, Burns-wick
and Pender—the supply totaled ap-proximately
4,500 potential workers, of
whom about 750 were skilled and semi-skilled.
This was not a count of the
unemployed, but rather an estimate of
the number of workers who could be at-tracted
to industry. These workers would
come from the unemployed; new en-trants,
including housewives; persons
now commuting to work in other areas;
transfers from agriculture, etc.
A look at the insured unemployment
experience of the Wilmington employ-ment
security office area—New Hanover,
Brunswick and Pender counties—will
throw even more light on the availability
of labor and its under-utilization. As
shown in Table III, in only one year
since 1949 has the Wilmington Area had
a lower unemployment ratio than the
state-wide average. In most years Wilm-ington's
insured unemployment ratio has
run considerably higher; e.g., in 1958,
9.3 vs 6.2; 1959, 7.1 vs 4.1; and first
three quarters of 1960, 8.4 vs 4.4.
—See WILMINGTON, page 37—
MORE UNITED PICTURES
sooner o** later
tl-iey a.11 say...
"let's get
United
IWdTfD fwnitwa Owpwatto, Laxmjton. North Careltna
Unitcd's Popular Trade Mark.
Walnut Dining Room Group. Note recessed hardware and sliding doors.
Solid Wood Pulls and linefold doors are outstanding features of this contemporary walnut suite.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 35
Carriker Church Furniture Company Is Really Big Business
By Steve H. Presson, Gen. Mgr.
Carriker Church Furniture Company
succeeded the firm of C. A. Carriker and
Sons in May 1954, purchasing all the
machinery and inventory from the part-nership
of B. C. and H. W. Carriker which
had been manufacturing church furni-ture
exclusively since 1940. Over 95% of
the production and management person-nel
was retained by the new firm. Opera-tions
were continued at the original loca-tion
in a wooden frame building at Rt.
#2, Monroe, N. C. (near Unionville) until
December of 1954 when the corporation
moved into its new 40,000 square foot,
brick veneer, sprinklered building on
Broome St. in the corporate limits of
Monroe. This building was specially de-signed
to closely coincide with every
phase of the company's operation. In
1959 a 4000' square foot warehouse was
added to enable the firm to stock a larger
and more varied supply of kiln dried lum-ber,
and in 1960 three acres of adjoining
land were purchased for future expan-sion.
The company designs, manufactures
and distributes a quality line of church
furniture throughout the United States;
the pew line primarily confined to the
southern and eastern section of the coun-try
and the chancel furniture and related
items shipped nationwide. Factory sales-men
cover North and South Carolina, and
the company has distributors located in
Jacksonville, Florida; Birmingham, Ala-bama;
Richmond, Virginia; Louisville,
Kentucky; Washington, D. C; Baltimore,
Maryland; MacArthur, W. Va.; Pitts-burgh
and Philadelphia, Pa.; Cleveland,
Ohio; Paterson, New Jersey, New York
City, and Bridgeport, Conn. The firm
manufactures seating for approximately
two hundred churches each year, these
sales being made both to completely new
churches and churches in a renovating
and expansion program.
The design and engineering depart-ment
of the company works closely with
the church architect with regards to the
furniture to assure a harmonious blend
of style and color. When churches do not
employ the services of an architect, the
services of this design and engineering
department are available to the church
to help them select the appropriate furni-ture
for their building. It is not uncom-mon
for complete plan and elevation
drawings of the furniture to be made and
presented to the church for their study,
comments, and final approval. After the
church has placed the order for the furni-ture,
decided upon style, color, etc. all is
in readiness for fabrication of the furni-ture
to begin. When production of the
order begins, the rough, kiln-dried lum-ber,
which has been hauled to the factory
on trailer trucks, is ripped, glued, ma-chined,
sanded, and carried through the
various machines and processes neces-sary
in the manufacture of church furni-ture.
Staining and finishing is the last
process to take place prior to loading
the furniture on trucks for shipment to
destination. Church pews are loaded
knocked down and trained crews go to
the job site and assemble and install the
furniture right in the church.
Approximately fifty employees work
for the company year round with little
fluctuation in numbers as church furni-ture
is not a seasonal occupation, orders
being quite steady the year round.
The firm is a closely held corporation
and has the following officers: E. G.
Baker, Statesville, N. C, president; Joe
Sherrill, Statesville, N. C, vice president;
Joe G. Shelton, Statesville, N. C, Sec. &
Treas.; and Steve H. Presson; Monroe,
N. C, Asst. Sec. & Treas. Joe G. Shelton
and Steve H. Presson are the only of-ficers
actively engaged in the business,
being the sales manager and general
manager respectively.
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Statesville, N. C.
Top (Left) Chief design engineer. Max Cobb, (rear) and Maurice McCauley, draftsman (foreground)
in drafting and engineering dept. (Center) Ed Moore, office manager, figuring a quotation.
(Right) Henry Adcock at the jointer. (Bottom) Frank Furr and David Pressley routing pew ends.
(Center) Garrison Medlin making paneled pew ends. (Bottom) Willie Tomberlin operating High
Frequency Glue machine.
PAGE 36 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
BOLING CHAIRS COULD SEAT THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE FIFTY STATES
If a running- total of the number of
chairs manufactured and distributed by
Boling Chair Company of Siler City, N.
C. since 1904 had been kept, the total
could easily appi-oach the adult popula-tion
of the United States today. In this
56th year of a highly successful opera-tion,
Boling chairs can be found in of-fices,
homes, schools and institutions in
every one of the 50 states and many
foreign countries.
The forerunner of the present firm was
organized in 1901 and was known as the
Siler City Bending Co. who specialized
in the manufacture of wagon and buggy
rims. In 1904 the company was reor-ganized
under the name of High Point
Bending and Chair Co., and incorpora-tors
included Capt. W. P. Brown, ori-ginally
of Cleveland, Ohio, who was mill
manager, J. Wade Siler, S. H. Tomlinson
and M. J. Boling. Following a fire in
December of 1907 the factory was re-built
and the first "bentwood" chair ever
to be made in the South was developed
by Mi". Boling and Mr. Brown. Now, over
half a century later, all curved parts on
Boling chairs are still being "steam bent"
for greater strength and beauty.
In 1926 a new line of office chairs was
developed, and today a major proportion
of the firm's production facilities is de-voted
to a complete and comprehensive
line of "Chairs For All Business." From
Utility stools to handsome executive
chairs upholstered in leather, plastics or
fabric, Boling chairs are found in private
offices, general offices, conference rooms,
reception areas, etc. Boling office
chairs have received national recognition
not only through the editorial pages of
the country's leading magazines, but al-so
from the publicity resulting from the
opening of huge, new office buildings,
governmental and political meetings
—
and the discerning eye can spot many
Boling chairs on innumerable TV pro-grams.
A long standing company policy
still insists that "Our product is our best
advertising." A consistent advertising
program incorporating thousands of
pieces of descriptive literature and cata-logs
has helped to spread the Boling
name from coast to coast.
Perhaps less well known, but a major
factor in the firm's amazing growth has
been their manufacture of chairs for
homes, schools and institutions. Boling
chairs are consistently finding their way
into schools and colleges, public and
private libraries, churches, auditoriums,
cafeterias, etc. Today, single orders for
over 1,000 chairs for such installations
are not uncommon. Another Boling spec-ialty
has been the development of a
line of authentic Early American occas-ional
chairs for home use. These highly
decorative and functional reproductions
have found use in every conceivable dec-orative
scheme in use by the modern
American homemaker.
In 1951 a dimension lumber plant was
developed in Azalea, North Carolina. This
plant supplies much of the stock used in
the Siler City Manufacturing operation,
Supreme Court Judge Type or
Chair.
'Senior Executive"
Some of the types of chairs manufactured by Boiling.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 37
and is a major user of the many tine,
high quality woods grown in the moun-tainous
area around Asheville, North
Carolina. In 1960, a three-story addition
to Plant "A" in Siler City was begun.
This new building will materially in-crease
and streamline the company's pro-duction.
In 1956 the corporate name of the com-pany
was changed to "Boling Chair Com-pany."
Doling chairs had grown to such
stature in the industry that the name had
become synonymous with the factory.
Present officers of the company are:
F. J. Boling, President, J. K. Boling, Vice
President, K. G. Clapp, Treasurer and
H. E. Stout, Secretary.
The Siler City Boiling Chair Company Plant.
WILMINGTON STORY
- Continued from page 34
—
Table II
Trend of Insured Employment in Manufacturing
in New Hanover County and North Carolina
1950-1960
Industry and Area
Per Cent Change From
1950 to 1960
All Manufacturing
New Hanover
North Carolina
Textile Mill Products
New Hanover
North Carolina
Apparel
New Hanover
North Carolina
Food & Kindred Products
New Hanover
North Carolina
Lumber and Wood
New Hanover
North Carolina
Chemicals
New Hanover
North Carolina
Fabricated Metals
New Hanover
North Carolina
All Other
New Hanover
North Carolin

4& North Carolina »«• l.u,»,
ThI E. S. C. Quarterly Doa
/OLUME 18, NO. 3-4 SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
over Legend On Page Two Complete Index On Page 66
*
PAGE 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
The E. S. C. Quarterly CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS
(Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly)
Vol. 18, No. 3-4 Summer-Fall, 1960
Issued at Raleigh, N. C. by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners: Mrs. Quentin Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Maurice
Van Hecke, Chapel Hill; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; W. Benton
Pipkin, Reidsville; Bruce E. Davis, Charlotte; Crayon C.
Efird, Albemarle.
State Advisory Council: Public representatives: James A.
Bridger, Bladenboro, Chairman; Sherwood Roberson, Rob-ersonville;
W. B. Horton, Yanceyville; Mrs. R. C. Lewel-lyn,
Dobson, and Dr. J. W. Seabrook, Fayetteville; Em-ployer
representatives: A. L. Tait, Lincolnton and G.
Maurice Hill, Drexel; Employee representatives: Melvin
Ward, Spencer, AFL and H. D. Lisk, Charlotte, CIO.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Insurance Division
JOSEPH W. BEACH Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
TED DAVIS Editor
Public Information Officer, Member Public Relations
Society of America
MARTHA JACKSON Associate Editor
Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E.S.C. Informational
Service, P. O. Box 589, Raleigh, N. C.
INDEX APPEARS ON PAGE 66
Top left: New bedroom designed by Tomlinson of High Point for
practicality combined with feminine charm. The two-poster canopy bed
conceals lighting which emphasizes the delicate, brass-accented arches
topping the headboard.
Right: THE GREAT CIRCLE CHAIR manufactured by CaliLounger, Inc.,
of Kernersville. The chair is 32 inches wide, 29 inches deep, and 27'/2
inches high and is available with or without a swivel.
Center left: Progress in finding the answer to the problem of desalting
sea water at an economically feasible price, thus making it available
for drinking, industrial and agricultural applications, has now reached
the pilot plant stage. In cooperation with the U. S. Department of the
Interior, Office of Saline Water, the distillation equipment shown under
test at Harbor Island may provide the answer to a problem that has
plagued mankind since the beginning of time.
Right: Riding Little Lady and Sonny on Emerald Isle are Betsy Bugg,
(L), Kay Hunter and Sherrod Fawler, all of Durham. The ponies and
horses belonging to developer Bill McLean love to carry the children
through the breakers.
Bottom left: W. A. Eckand, craftsman in special chancel furniture de-partment
of Southern Desk Co., puts finishing touch on Ornate Gathis
Pulpit. Corpus of Christ was hand carved by Mr. Frank A. Arthur, hand
carver.
Right: A Console from the Medallion Group. Note marble inlays on top
and Carpathian elm burl in door panels.
Henry E. Kendall, Chairman
Employment Security Commission
With this number of the QUARTERLY we up-date the
1952 Winter-Spring Edition of this magazine which also
featured Furniture.
Described as "cabinet makers shops" in the first U. S.
Census of 1790, furniture manufacturing was listed as oneil
of North Carolina's nine industries. At
that time it was fourth in importance in
the State, topped by textiles, tobacco,
lumber and timber products.
j**/^* *Q
'•*»# r
In 1950 there were 305 furniture plants!!
in North Carolina covered by Employ-i]
ment Security Laws. Today there are
410 plants with four or more employees.
If small novelty shops in homes and
schools are counted, North Carolina prob-ably
has more than 450 furniture manu
KEWD al«
facturing establishments.
Furniture is manufactured in quantity in 46 of our 10C
counties. The four top furniture producing counties are:
Guilford, Catawba, Davidson and Caldwell, in that order
Each has more than 6,000 employees insured under the Em-ployment
Security Law.
High Point, Guilford County, is the world's leading manu-facturing
center of wood furniture. Four special furnitun
showings are held each year in that city with buyers froir
all over the nation and numerous foreign countries making
the city their headquarters. Up to six thousand buyers at
tend each showing.
Drexel Furniture Company, with plants in Morganton
Drexel, and Marion is probably the largest furniture manu
facturing firm in the State, and one of the largest in th<
United States. Bedroom and dining room suites are thi
principal Drexel products.
North Carolina State College is the first University in tb
United States to offer a four-year course in Furniture Manu
facturing and Management. The College also offers a degre
in Wood Technology and conducts extension courses fo
workers in the furniture industry.
In the decade from 1950 to 1960 furniture employment ii
North Carolina rose from 32,793 to 42,930, a gain of 30.!
per cent. Total wages increased from $78.7 to $149.3 millions
a rise of approximately 90 percent. At the present rate o
increase, the State will continue to hold its number one posi
tion in furniture production in the United States and possi
bly be first in the world.
North Carolina has 11.1 per cent of all insured U. S. furni
ture employees. Within this State, furniture workers' earn
ings compare favorably with earnings in other manufacturin
industries.
Tourists sometimes ask permission to visit furnitur
factories. This presents a problem. Many factory operation
are spread over several buildings and unlike the making c
cigarettes which is done on a single machine about twent
feet long, can not be viewed with any degree of continuit
or sufficient safety. Some factories are considering specif
operational setups so that tourists may view, in safety, th.
making of fine furniture.
You will also find articles on resort developments in th
State, and an article on a large plant designed to de-sa
sea water for use in manufacturing and agriculture. This
a cooperative effort of the U. S. Department of Interior, Offic
of Saline Water, and a private corporation.
Your comments on this and other editions of the QUAI
TERLY are invited.
4
i
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 3
CONOVER CHAIR COMPANY IS FORTY YEARS OLD THIS YEAR
BOST
Conover Chair Company, Inc., located
along the Southern Railway System at
Conover, North Carolina, was one of the
pioneers in upholstered furniture manu-facturing
in the Newton-Conover section
of Piedmont North Carolina. The busi-ness
was started in the 1920's by Mr.
Alvin Bolick as the Conover Mattress
Company.
The company went into the manufac-ture
of upholstered ^SPlitek
furniture about 1927 Jr l|j
and has, over the
succeeding years,
continued to grow, to
refine its operations
and to improve its
product.
Mr. Charles C. C.
Bost, President of
Conover Chair Com-pany,
Inc., joined
the firm in 1932 and became a partner
with the founder, Mr. Alvin Bolick.
When Mr. Bolick retired in 1946, Mr.
Bost took over the active operation of
the company and became sole owner.
The company was incorporated on De-cember
1, 1958. Mr. Bost has been Presi-dent
and Chairman of the Board since
that date.
W. P. Bost and James J. Martin, both
Vice Presidents of the company, and
Fred Lee Sherrill, Jr., Secretary of the
company, complete the management
"team".
Mr. W. P. Bost is designer for the
company and also is responsible for pur-chases,
plant production and engineer-ing.
Mr. James J. Martin is Sales Manager
for the company, handles all phases of
marketing and service functions of the
operation.
Mr. Fred Lee Sherrill, Jr., recently
joined the company and has been assign-ed,
at this time, the personnel and qual-ity
control functions of the company.
The progress of Conover Chair Com-pany,
Inc. presents an interesting "story"
coinciding somewhat with the growth
and progress of the industrial Piedmont
area.
This factory by 1947 had more than
doubled its manufacturing area from
12,960 square feet to 28,815 square feet.
The expansion steadily continued until
today the plant area is 63,419 square
feet. The addition in late 1959 of a new
office building (completely air conditioned
and modern in every respect) set the
trend for a better type of construction
to be used on future buildings. The new
brick and concrete block construction has
been used on the new Fabric Cutting
Section, Warehouse and Shipping Section
completed this year.
The production facilities of the factory
have also been kept "up to date" and
modernized as the plant has expanded.
Conveyors carry the product throughout
the plant from the Machine Room to the
Shipping Room door as evidence of the
application of modern manufacturing
methods in use throughout the plant.
Modern machinery is to be found from
the Machine Room throughout the plant
and in the Office Section.
Conover Chair Company, Inc. manu-factures
a quality line of upholstered
furniture in the medium to high priced
brackets. The firm has concentrated on
Early American styling during the past
five years and is generally accepted as
one of the major sources in the country
for this category of furniture. The pro-duct
of the company is distributed
through sales agents throughout all of
the States east of the Mississippi River,
one row of States west of the River, and
with some distribution finding its way
on out to the West Coast.
The company maintains beautifully
decorated permanent display showrooms
in the Southern Furniture Exposition
Building in High Point, North Carolina,
and in the American Furniture Mart in
Chicago, Illinois. The product is present- —See CONOVER CHAIR, Page 39—
Upholstered Products of Conover Choir Company
mmm.:.
l»l I \< 1
1
Main Plant of Conover Chair Company containing the Fabric Cutting, Warehouse and Shipping Sections.
PAGE 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
DREXEL FURNITURE CO. — FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS OF PROGRESS
The history of the Drexel Furniture
Company is a "success story" typical of
many other businesses that have started
in a very small way, and have grown and
prospered under the American system of
free enterprise. It began on November
10, 1903, at what could have been little
more than a pasture crossing in the Pied-mont
Section of Western North Carolina,
where the first Drexel Furniture Com-pany
Plant was built.
From this small beginning, Drexel has
become known as the "World's Largest
Manufacturer of Quality Dining Room
and Bedroom Furniture". In addition,
the Heritage Furniture Company with
plants in High Point and Mocksville, and
the Morganton Furniture Company, in
Morganton, are operated as wholly-owned
subsidiaries, and sell their products under
the Heritage and Morganton brand
names.
The plant at Drexel is the oldest. It is
situated on the same site as the original
factory and employes 485 people. The
general offices of the Company are also
located at Drexel. The new $750,000 con-struction
project just completed has
doubled the showroom space, greatly in-creased
the main office and expanded
the warehouse facilities.
In Morganton, the Company operates
a combination dining room and occasional
furniture plant, a chair plant, and a
sample plant, all under the same roof.
Also at Morganton is the Table Rock
Plant acquired in January 1951 and now
operated as one of the Drexel Division
plants. A $150,000 expansion program
has just been completed at this plant.
These plants, together, employ over 1300
people.
A new Engineering Building is located
in the vicinity of the Morganton Plants.
Here is housed a machine shop, labora-tories,
and all engineering personnel to
serve the entire Company. Production
engineers are constantly doing research
and testing to improve production
methods, machinery and general work-ing
conditions to keep these plants ef-ficient
and modern.
The Marion Operation is the second
largest in the Drexel Organization. A
recent expansion program has combined
three plants into one mammoth facility,
employing some 600 persons and capable
of producing $10 million dollars of furni-ture
annually.
From Drexel's plants comes some of
the finest furniture produced in America.
Skilled craftsmen, modern methods and
machinery have made it possible to pro-duce
fine furniture on a mass production
basis. The average output is about 100
freight cars of furniture per week, need-ed
to meet the requirements of sales for
the Company which is in excess of $40
million dollars annually.
The Company's annual payroll is over
$14 million dollars. The Drexel Manage-ment
is especially cognizant of the "hu-man
side" of their Company. Good em-ployer
and employee relations are tradi-tional
with Drexel, as is the joint pride
of both in the Company's products and
continued progress. A formalized Profit
Sharing Plan, which pays employees a
share of the profits each year, has been
in effect for ten years. During these ten
years, Drexel employees have received,
as their share of profits, some $6 mil-lion
dollars in bonuses. In addition, the
Company provides many other benefits.
Drexel employees are not only regard-ed
as fine furniture craftsmen but are
also recognized as fine citizens. A large
percentage own their homes, Their con-tribution
toward the growth and better-ment
of their community has gained for
them the respect of their neighbors.
Drexel's new Engineering and Research Building
—
completed last year and located in the vicinity
of other Morganton Plants. Here is housed lab-oratories
and all engineering personnel which
serves the entire Company.
Decorators doing special hand decoration work on specialized furniture.
The Marion Plant. A remodeling and modernization program has just been completed there. The_ new
building combines three plants into one, capable of producing over 10 million dollars of furniture
annually.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 5
"WILMINGTON LOOK'S AHEAD" ONE OF STUDIES PROJECTED BY R. & S.
(An economic analysis of New Hanover
County with emphasis on the composi-tion
and trend of employment insured
tinder the Employment Security Pro-gram)
By E. Stanhope Dunn, Supervisor, Re-ports
and Analysis, Bureau of R & S,
ESC
The damper that has checked the econ-omic
growth of the Wilmington Area for
the past several years has now been lifted
with the transfer of the large Atlantic
Coast Line office from Wilmington to
Jacksonville, Florida.
This exodus had been in the planning
stage for several years so naturally it has
had a very depressing economic influence
on the Area. Employers have been very
apprehensive, and prospective employers,
especially in the trade and service indus-tries,
have been slow to establish busi-nesses
in an Area scheduled to suffer such
a sizable economic loss—a direct loss of
almost one thousand workers. But the
inevitable has materialized—the dreadful
uncertainty has been removed—and the
Area can now look ahead to the future
with optimism. There is nothing to pre-vent
it from recouping this loss and from
surging ahead as many other North Caro-lina
areas are doing in our highly com-petitive
economy.
At this crucial point in the Area's
economic progress, it might be well to
take stock of its accomplishments during
the past ten years.
It is reassuring to note that the
growth in insured employment (exclud-ing
railroad workers) in the Wilmington
Area during the last decade has been
slightly greater than that for the State
as a whole: 33.6 vs 33.1 per cent. During
this period, New Hanover's insured em-ployment
has risen from 11,100 in 1950
to 14,827 in 1959. A closer look, however,
at the employment trends of the differ-ent
industry divisions that go to make
up the total reveals a considerable devia-tion
from the state-wide pattern. More-over,
the depressing effects of the
attending uncertainty and the final re-moval
of the Atlantic Coast Line main
office are clearly discernible in the em-ployment
trends of the different industry
divisions.
To begin with, New Hanover County
was able to maintain approximately the
same overall insured employment growth
during the ten-year period only by
having a greater percentage gain in
manufacturing than the state-wide ex-perience.
This is highly significant be-cause
manufacturing gains are conducive
to growth in other industry divisions.
Given a good manufacturing base, an
employment expansion in other industry
divisions such as utilities, trade and
services will follow.
During the period from 1950 through
1959, manufacturing employment in New
Hanover rose from 4,344 to 5,558, a gain
of 27.9 per cent. In the same period, the
state-wide growth was only 22.3 per
cent. The Area's gain in construction
employment—50.6 per cent—significant-ly
exceeded the state-wide gain of 38.7
per cent. In all other major industries,
however, the growth in New Hanover
lagged behind the statewide gains as
shown in the accompanying Table I.
Those major industry divisions, such as
trade and services, which were expected
to suffer from the loss of a large em-ploying
establishment, did experience a
slower growth.
Attention is now directed to the manu-facturing
divisions, which fared the best — employmentwise — during the study
period. The major manufacturing indus-tries
in New Hanover County, with their
first quarter 1960 average monthly em-ployment
in parentheses, are: textile
(1,400); apparel (1,346); food products
(865); lumber and wood products (659);
chemicals (556) and fabricated metal
products (493). Although the last listed
industry—fabricated metal products
—
—See WILMINGTON, page 30—
DREXEL'S "PALAZZO" GROUPINGS
Bedroom and dining room pieces in Drexel's new Palazzo group. This is the newest and one of
the company's most popular groupings.
PAGE 6 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL 1960
UNAGUSTA MANUFACTURING CORPORATION NAMED FOR INDIAN CHIEF
The Unagusta Manufacturing Cor-poration
was organized in 1903, taking
its name from the famous Cherokee lead-er,
Chief Unagusta. The founders and
stockholders were established lumber-men
of the district, C H. Hobbs, E. E.
Quinlan, E. W. Monroe, C. E. Gordon,
and J. M. Burns.
Charles Prevost was the first superin-tendent
of the furniture plant and was
succeeded in 1909 by R. L. Prevost, Sr.
In 1914 C. E. Quinlan, son of E. E. Quin-lan,
became secretary-treasurer and di-rected
the company until his death in
1931. At that time Unagusta came under
the direction of R. L. Prevost, Sr., and
his sons and was headed by the Prevost
family until 1958. In that year there was
a reorganization of management with
M. H. Clarke as president; W. S. Prevost,
executive vice president; J. A. Prevost
and W. H. Prevost, vice presidents; and
R. L. Prevost, Sr., chairman of the
board of directors.
In 1936 Plant #2, a structure pre-viously
owned by the Waynesville Furni-ture
Company, was acquired but it was
destroyed by fire in 1955 and operations
were carried on in the old Plant #1 until
the completion of a new plant in Novem-ber,
1956. Plant #1 then was converted
to warehouse space.
The present Unagusta factory is one
of the most modern in the country—
a
three and one-half million dollar struc-ture
with floor space of 200,000 square
feet as against the 140,000 square feet
of the plant it replaced. It is engineered
throughout for efficient, cost-controlled
production of the highest quality bedroom
and dining room furniture. Its annual
capacity is approximately $10,000,000.00.
It has miles of mechanized conveyors
and there is a complete air change every
sixty seconds throughout the factory.
Some 400 persons are employed in plant
and offices, the majority of them natives
of Haywood County. Unagusta makes
veneered furniture in traditional, tran-sitional,
and contemporary designs. In its
earliest days the furniture was oak bed-room
suites—washstands, dressers, chif-foniers,
and beds. The next development
was walnut veneer and enameled groups.
In 1930 the firm became interested in
mahogany and for a number of years
—See UNAGUSTA, Page 39—
FORWARD FURNITURE
by
iiiiousia MANUFACTURING CORP.
ZELWOOD, NORTH CAROLINA
UNAGUSTA'S TRADE-MARK
The Lumber Handling and Dry Kiln Operations—Grading, measuring, and stacking lumber are left
to right) Dave Harveson, Dewey Flower, Charlie Pressley, and William L. Queen.
Henry M. Jordan, Forty-six years in Employment
Henry Jordan, Cut-off Saw Operator in the Rough
End Department holds the longest record of con-tinuous
employment at Unagusta—first day on
the job, July 1, 1914.
Section of the Finishing Department showing the conveyor carrying furniture to the various
finishing operations.
Artist's Sketch of the Present Unagusta Plant.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 7
FORESIGHT AND QUALITY ARE PACE-SETTERS AT TOMLINSON OF HIGH POINT
By Clifford W. Cox
Field Editor, Furniture Production
Magazine
Perhaps the most individualistic com-pany
in the furniture industry today is
Tomlinson of High Point (North Caro-lina).
In these days when many giants of
many different industries are pirating one
another's designs, Tomlinson has consis-tently
turned its back on what the rest
are doing. Not only has Tomlinson de-parted
from the routine aspects of furni-ture
manufacture and merchandising, it
has proven its independence to be profi-table.
Tomlinson's break with design tradi-tion
was first introduced with its Sophis-ticate
Collection in 1956; its effect on the
furniture scene was indeed startling, and
it was hailed as "a major milestone in
contemporary design." Not only did Tom-linson
violate the accepted maxims of
making an annual or semi-annual design
debut, it incorporated into its Sophis-ticate
theme five different but compatible
design motifs—all of which elevated the
firm above the usual one-horse design
practice. The Sophisticate Collection pre-ceded
Tomlinson's most recent departure,
the Pavane Assemblage, which will be
discussed below.
Sophisticate was designed by John
Lubberts and Lambert Mulder after 18
months of detailed study and develop-ment.
It is the result of elaborate con-sumer
studies and extensive market
analyses. As its name implies, Sophis-ticate
was developed to express the in-formal
sophistication of today's Ameri-cans.
It has an astonishingly low-scaled
suggestion of Oriental forms, Scandi-navian
flair, and a transitional mood of
modern Hepplewhite—all of which makes
it non-regional, yet well adapted for mix-ing
with antiques or modern abstractions.
The Sophisticate character is best seen
in the chairs, mainly casual or cocktail,
which have short sculptured legs and low
sweeping backs. Tables and cabinets have
similar light-scaled pecan members, gen-erous
open spaces, parquetry of several
burl veneers, and a soft brown Emberglo
finish.
Now four years in production, Sophis-ticate
has proven itself; and it rapidly
became a trend-setter. It is expected to
remain popular for ten to twenty years,
according to company officials. Perhaps
that sounds optimistic; but Tomlinson
seems sure of its ground.
The company also produces an uphols-tered
line, called Symphony in Color.
Symphony takes for its theme a har-monized
creativity of interior design.
Ninety-one available fabrics are coordi-nated
into thirteen groups of seven each —keyed to the thirteen top fashion
colors. These are blended in pattern and
texture, as well as solid colors, not for
matching but for blending with one
another in a variety of pieces.
Many reproductions of several period
pieces are also made. These might range
from an authentic Louis XVI chair, which
was designed to favor the king's paunch,
to an exquisite tiny love seat almost
exactly to the pattern of its fabric.
Finally, Tomlinson produces contract
furniture in two phases: hospital furni-ture
which is sold to a distributor, bid
contracts for specially designed pieces for
hotels such as the Eden Roc in Miami,
Key Biscayne, Marlin Beach in Ft. Lau-derdale,
the Ambassador Hotel in New
York, and Sophisticate for colleges such
as the University of Texas.
Shortly after the Sophisticate Collec-tion
was introduced Tomlinson began to
consider a new design. William A. Tom-linson,
president of the firm, made trips
to Europe to study classical architectural
traditions. The design ambition of the
company was to interpret these classic
forms to today's expression as to scale,
detail, and living standard. This general
research, ultimate design, production,
merchandising and development of set-tings
for the new Pavane Assemblage
cost over a quarter of a million dollars.
In order to discourage design pirates,
Tomlinson, as with Sophisticate, com-pleted
the designs for an entire line of
living, dining, and bedroom pieces be-fore
Pavane was introduced to the public.
The term "assemblage" is applied to
Pavane because it is made up of many
design motifs. These range from Bur-gundian
Gothic forms through Jacobean,
French wrought iron, Empire, and other
English, Italian and Greek traditions
—
This country living room from "Pavane" by Tomlinson expresses today's need for relaxed living. Furniture textures vary fro
ones of solid pecan chair framing and rare Javanese veneer on the table tops. Finish is a lightly distressed "Sherry"
m marble and iron to mellow
PAGE 8 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Tomlinson's plant has nearly three-quarters of a million square feet of production space.
forming- pleasing ovals in the backs. The
front legs of the ladderbacks are reeded
while those of the spoonbacks are not. An
upholstered chair has a high clippedwing
back trimmed with exposed wood. There
are shield-back chairs, spindle-backs, and
elegant bentwood back models; sleigh
beds, secretaries, chests, and round com-modes.
Other examples are a bombe
A man's chest by Tomlinson in the Sophisticate
Collection.
having an overall Renaissance feeling
which has been said to be Spanish!
Perhaps the best example of this work
is a long huntboard of wrought iron base
with a simply-turned pecan stretcher,
wide overhanging top, two long drawers
with a combination of straight and grace-fully
curved, molded fronts, and two nar-row
drawers with the molded theme ar-ranged
vertically.
Striking chairs are either solid spoon-backs
or ladderbacks with curved rungs
ing; some are designed for possible use
as sectionals. Backs are both flat-cushion-ed
and tufted.
Although it is too early to tell what
effect Tomlinson's break from customary
furniture manufacturing and merchandis-ing
policies will have on the industry—if
the merchandising of Pavane is as suc-cessful
as that of Sophisticate—perhaps
an "agonizing reappraisal" for the entire
industry will be indicated. Probably it
will be seen that the long range program
of design and development used in the
aircraft and automobile industries will
also be the order of the day for the furni
ture industry.
Tomlinson of High Point has adequate
floorspace for custom production in vol-ume—
roughly 13 acres. The firm employs
from four to five hundred persons on
straight time and incentive standards.
Machining equipment, while operating to
1/64 in. tolerances on tough pecan—re-
This Ply-Cor machine is loaded by operator W. C.
Lackey.
dresser with Karelian burl curved front,
an etagere—a narrow, tapered china cab-inet,
and a panetiere—an elaborate spin-dle-
type curio cabinet or chair-side table.
Several tables are made with thistle legs,
wrought iron bases, or pedestals. Others
have column designs. Lounge chairs,
sofas and loveseats have an Empire feel-
A sectional sofa is
left, and Bill Rose.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 9
quiring carbide tools and relatively rapid
turn-over—is similar to that of other
firms. What, then, is the difference?
What makes Tomlinson an industry-leader?
Flexibility of production is their best
feature, company officials say, calling
it a "custom operation on a production
basis." But one other reason is apparent
—Tomlinson has made design and mer-chandising
compatible terms. The two go
hand in hand in a direct route to the
consumer. Like this:
According to Sidney H. Tomlinson,
rice-president and sales manager, Tom-linson
has undertaken a new design ap-proach.
The old concept of design was
to draw up "what we thought the con-sumer
ought to have. We'd say this or
that is right for his taste. Now we ask
the consumer what he wants." However,
the consumer has difficulty explaining
what he wants; and merchandising has
been a guessing game.
Tomlinson conducts its market surveys
in a way that doesn't influence the buyer.
As many motivation researchers know
the survey questions usually confine the
information wanted to certain choices,
limiting the results to pre-conceived no-tions
on the part of the research staff.
So Tomlinson doesn't conduct any polls,
doesn't ask any leading questions which
can only narrow down the information
to somewhat educated guesses. Tomlin-son
isn't interested in what is happening
now—what the consumer is buying now —but what he will buy two or three years
from now.
A steering committee is formed from
key retailers who are rotated for semi-annual
meetings. These meetings are held
to discuss evidence of coming trends. Al-though
three Tomlinson people are pres-ent
at these meetings—the president, the
style director, and sales vice-president
—
they do not take part in the discussions.
Tomlinson refrains from allowing any
outside influence, such as personal prefer-ence
or production advantage, to "cor-rupt"
the survey. Actually the steering
committee is not made aware of Tom-linson's
conclusions until after many
preliminary drawings are made. Months
later, perhaps, when color renderings are
shown to certain buyers—if they say
"this is what I've been looking for and
didn't know it," Tomlinson knows it's
hitting close to a potentially good design.
Tomlinson's design staff sketches ap-proximately
what is wanted in rough
ideas; and these sketches are then sub-mitted
to the steering committee for re-finement.
Some samples are built to study
engineering problems and ways of pro-ducing
the piece most economically. Then
hardware is designed and the building
of showroom pieces is begun.
As these pieces are completed decora-tors
are brought to the plant showrooms;
and a 13-room setting is designed to
show the pieces to best advantage. When
these settings are completed a preview
is given to dealers before any details or
pictures are released to the public. For
example, 75 pieces of Pavane were shown
to the dealers in April 1959 before sam-ples
were shipped to them in October and
eventual exposure to the public, as well
as competitors.
Tomlinson feels that its furniture
should be shown in a specific manner as
to accessories, wall and floor coverings,
and draperies and bedspreads. The firm
asks that its franchised retailers display
their Tomlinson settings as they are
seen in the company showrooms. An ex-ample
is a dining area setting of Pavane
containing a pedestal table, spoonback
chairs, the escritoire—a chest with drop-front
writing surface, a ladderback chair,
a startling white upholstered chair, and
a break-front with white interior up-
(L to R) Butternut veneers are laid-up on solid cores. Wood eouls prevent veneer damage. (Center) James Snow sub assembles table rails. (Right)
Attorn' Ch
e
arVie
te
Bla?k%o^man
y
o1r
y
°hrvfneer department, examines some yew and Swiss Karelian burl veneer. This care is typical of the many steps
mTh^^fMAiS^JIt^aMmM. (Center) J. T. Bell sets up Bell 24 Double End Cut-off, Chucking and boring machine. (Right) A D.ehl
apeless slicer running poplar cross banding is off beared by Bob Fowler.
PAGE 10 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Top (L to R) A Symphony short sofa is hand-tufted by Davis Harris. (Center) Jesse Riggs rubs glaze on a reproduction Louis XVI chair. (Right) A hydrau-lic
lift raises heavy pieces to convenient spraying height for Harold Bell.
Bottom workers are seen in the hand sanding department. (Center) Lola Hitchcock "jitterbugs" a chair with Sundstrand Sander. (Right) Minor repairs are
made on a Sophisticate table in the hand-sand department by Robert Carrigan.
per section. The rug is a solid watermelon
color which is also carried out on one
wall surface. The spoonback seats are
a lighter shade of red, the tableware is
deep red amber, and the napkins are also
watermelon. A white floral vase sits on
the escritoire, a table lamp with a white
shade is on the writing shelf, a red mesh
pattern on a white background is on
another wall, and finally the centerpiece
of the dining table has yellow pears
nestled in white lace. This setting is
described in the Pavane brochure as be-fitting
a town house, a suburban or even
a country home. "The bold color scheme
has a dashing contemporary character."
The success of this policy of decorated
displays is borne out by the fact that
new dealers are continually soliciting
franchises to display the older Sophis-ticate
Collection since Pavane has been
released. The company has experienced
a similar acceptance of Pavane.
Tomlinson believes that manufacturers
should maintain a close relationship with
retailers — approching a partnership
basis. This type of merchandising was in-troduced
in 1936 with Tomlinson's Wil-liamsburg
Galleries. Some of the
Williamsburg is still seen in antique
shops across the country.
Wood selection for Tomlinson furniture
is a major consideration in design de-velopment.
Many painstaking experi-ments
are carried on to obtain a blend
of species which contributes to the char-acter
of the Tomlinson product. A fea-ture
most readily apparent is that the
final finish and tone of both Sophisticate
and Pavane is singular, although, for
instance, nine different woods are used in
the Pavane Assemblage. There are vary-ing
degrees of shading in pieces such as
legs, table aprons, and other interstices
which are properly subdued; while tops
and fronts are emphasized by a striking
iridescence—all the while retaining a
tone relationship calculated to highlight
and shadow each piece according to its
design.
For Pavene these woods, both solid and
veneer, are American pecan, English
yew, American butternut, English box-wood,
imported rosewood, Javanese ve-neer,
American figured walnut, Karelian
burl, and myrtle burl. Incidentally, the
Perle d'Or Portuguese jewelry-type
marble used on the tops of some pieces
has an affinity of texture with nearly all
of the woods.
Tomlinson found that sweet pecan
bought from the stump in the Mississippi
Delta country blends properly with the
butternut veneer. This pecan is almost
indistinguishable from hickory except
that it is of high density, has a delight-ful
color, and affords exceptional strength
for use in solid members.
There is only one manual handling of
the lumber from boxcars to stacking for
kiln charges. This operation is aided by
a huge Ross fork-lift. The charges are
sent to the kilns for drying to approxi-mately
5% M.C. About 14 days are re-quired
to dry a charge of 4/4 pecan. From
here the lumber proceeds through two
dry sheds for stabilization, thence to the
rough end. A grab-unloading hoist mov-ing
on a monorail is used to transfer the
lumber from the kiln trucks to Porter
cut-off saws. From here it is conveyed
through a Jackson and Church surfacer,
Buss planer, and finally to four Mattison
ripsaws. Pecan is sent to cabinet ma-chining
operations; hackberry is sent to
the Ply-Cor machine or to machining for
upholstery frame parts.
That Tomlinson goes to great lengths
to obtain a high standard of quality and)
wood blending is evident in its machining
operations. Pecan frequently has mineral
streaks in it that punish tools and ma
chines. Its density causes much kick
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 11
jack and requires the use of heavy
guards. But this density has an advan-
;age, however, in that it resists feed and
?auge pressure, allowing a dimension
;olerance of 1/64 in. or about 15 thou-sandths.
This in turn assures tight mitre
ioints. Since much of Tomlinson's as-sembly
is on the order of hand-craft,
production is speeded up by operating
;he machines at peak requirements at all
;imes. Molding is done on a Mattison 270,
:hair posts and other parts are jig-shap-
;d on a Whitney auto feed single spindle
nachine, and frame parts are cut off and
)ored for double dowelling in one opera-ion
on a Bell No. 24 machine. In order
;o decrease down time for maintenance
romlinson uses carbide-tipped tools in
nolders, tenoners and shapers. These ma-rines
are replaced usually, due to in-reased
maintenance requirements or
;echnological improvements, on an aver-ige
of every five years. Stand-by
jquipment is also provided to assure con-inuous
operation.
Lumber cores, used in dining table
;ops and drawer fronts, are produced on
i Ply-Cor machine. Cores for other pieces
ire made from chipcore edge-grooved
ind banded with solid stock. This as-sembly
is speeded with the use of a
Lancaster radio-frequency glue press and
a Raybond 5 kva generator.
Since a great deal of Tomlinson furni-ture
has many decoratively curved parts,
three More multi-spindle carving ma-chines
are kept busy producing the curv-ed
members of chair arms, legs and
backs; cabinet door members and pedi-ments;
bed headboard carvings; table
pedestals, etc. The machine carvings
are cleaned up by hand carvers who de-liberately
leave small "mistakes" to en-hance
the hand-craft touch.
The veneer process and storage room
is huge, encompassing many veneer op-erations.
Sophisticate and Pavane furni-ture
has many intricate parquetry and
decorative veneer features which entail
much tedious clipping, matching, and
splicing operations. Butternut veneer is
bought in the flitch; various burls are
obtained in fragments. English yew burl,
in its separate state particularly, is very
fragile. Yet the veneer room employees
are able to "inlay" special treatments
such as rosewood stars or provide pre-cise
spaces for intricate brass effects.
The herringbone pattern of zebra-wood
is one of the matcher's art, since this
striped grain is naturally parallel. Kare-lian
burl, having a natural distress, is
used in drawer fronts and door panels
of many pieces. These operations are
done with Capitol clippers, Onsrud jig
routers, and Diehl tapeless splicers. Pop-lar
crossbanding with chipcore is used in
panel lay-ups with wood cauls to pre-vent
damage in the hot-press.
Flat stock is sanded prior to assembly
on an Oakley stroke sander, curved pieces
are sanded on pneumatic drums, carv-ings
are sanded on spindle machines, and
moldings are sanded on hand-block belt
models. Tomlinson goes a step further by
washing all parts in a glue size to raise
the grain; then they are machine sanded
again with fine grain paper to perfect
the finish. There will be more sanding
operations after assembly.
Assembly is another major part of
Tomlinson's operations because most of
the pieces are intricate; many of the
chairs and sofas have curved members,
while cabinets are highly decorative.
Door frames, drawer fronts and table
aprons are glued up in a Lancaster R. F.
press, screw and hydraulic presses. Hide
glues, dowels and screws are used in
stress points. From here on assembly is
largely tedious hand-craft with the use
of glue pots, dowels, screw guns and
hand clamps. Many glue blocks are used;
op (L to R) Clyde Woods webs a sofa seat. Solid webbing is applied on arms and backs. (Center) Dealers in fabric samples are assembled by Dot Shubert.
ot handles a thousand patterns, including leather. (Right) Tomlinson's 8-way lacing on seat springs is put in place. (Bottom) Glaze is applied on buffet
ront. (Center) Upholstery superintendent Jim Blackwell checks fabric arriving into department via chute from sewing room. (Right) All upholstering on
rench and English Petite Seige Benches is done by Charley Jones.
QUARTERLY
Top (L to R) Back is sewn on a sample chair by Grace Wall, an "outside" upholsterer. (Center) Fabric is applied to the seat of a Sophisticate cock-tail
chair by upholsterer Melvin Howard. (Right) Earley Cox gives a final inspection to a cocktail table with Pernige marble top.
Bottom (L to R) Burlap, permalator strip, and back hair are applied by Jessie Griffin. (Center) Fragile pieces are heavily crated in the efficient packing
department, (Right) One of the Tomlinson trucks is shown at the loading platform prior to leaving to make an overnight delivery to New York.
and skids are attached. The pieces are
then sanded again with hand-blocks and
Sunstrand "jitterbugs."
Finishes are Fruitwood, Antique Apple-wood,
Emberglo, Pompeian White, Anti-que
White, Cherryglo, Laurent Cherry,
Italian Walnut, Sherry and Applewood.
Finishing operations are carried out in
from 18 to 21 steps on a deBurgh 272-
pallet chain-type conveyor running at
6 ft. per minute. This department alone
employs over forty-two workers. Grand
Rapids Varnish Company is a major sup-plier
to this department.
The finish sequence for Sophisticate
Emberglo is as follows: a nograin-raise
stain is sprayed on; then a toner pre-cedes
a wash coat and scuff sand; a filler
is sprayed on and ragged off; then spray
seal and second scuff sand follow. Glaze,
shading, second sealer coat, and third
scuff sand are next. Distressing is applied
with a small spatter gun, using 60# air
and very minute fluid pressure. Hot lac-quer
is applied with Spee-Flo equipment.
Oven drying follows for 40 min. at 120°
F; then all pieces receive an overnight
dry. Finally they are machine and hand-rubbed
with pumice and oil; and lastly
receive a polish with black Grand Rapids
wax.
About 50% of Tomlinson's output is
upholstered; and much of it has exposed
wood members. Where possible Tomlin-son
protects these finished surfaces with
leather "boots" during upholstery opera-tions.
Tomlinson uses nearly all types of up-holstery
fabrics from silk, brocade and
tapestry-type weaves to vinyl and gen-uine
leather which are supplied by many
major fabric manufacturers such as
Craftex Mills and other import outlets.
These covers are applied to customer
specification. Patterns are cut for single
layers of material. These are tagged with
a number denoting the shipping date to
coordinate the arrival of the fabric and
the frame to the upholstery room. The
sewing room is equipped with a basket
conveyor which runs past a battery of
sewing and welting machines.
The upholstery build-up has the char-acteristic
Tomlinson emphasis on quality.
Marshall spring units are used with
foam down, cotton and dacron filler in
cushions. Upholstery frames are first
heavily webbed with solid and strip web-bing
on seats and backs. Coil springs are
given an 8-way tie with Ludlow twine.
Perma-lator wire flattens seats and
backs, and some individual wire applica-tions
are made between springs and
covers. Interlaced hair is used in backs.
A muslin interliner is used in tufted
pieces.
The cover operations are divided into
group application. One man works only
on seats, a second on arms, and a third
on backs. There are several upholsterers
in each group. Two other separate opera-tions
are "outsiding" and special order
upholstery. Outsiders apply rear panels,
sides, and skirts. These skirts have been
reinforced with buckram. Special order
upholsterers complete all cover applica-tions
on floor samples and some newly
designed pieces. Finally, for some pieces
such as loveseats of both period and con-temporary
styles, one upholsterer covers
the entire piece. Cover applications are
made with French seaming—eleven
stitches to the inch.
Hardware is applied near the packing
department. The heavy wrought iron
cabinet and table bases are specially de-signed.
These are either round or hexa-
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 13
gonal with brass footpads. Other hard-ware
is brass cabinet grilles, piano hinges
by Chatauqua, solid brass chair finials
and leg "tassels".
Tomlinson's shipping department is
extensive. A small crating department
produces "custom" crates for odd pieces
which cannot be cartoned and those which
are both cartoned and crated for either
rail or truck transportation specifica-tions.
Several different items are pres-sure-
packed in the same type carton.
Tomlinson helped promote the 23-F speci-fication
of suspended crate-cartoning in
the interstate shipping regulations.
While Tomlinson ships by common car-rier
it also maintains 5 big vans and one
small one for special customer service de-livery.
Trailers are Black Diamond and
tractors are International. The company
tries to break even on its own trucking
costs by dead heading raw material on
return trips. For instance, Tomlinson
offers overnight delivery to New York.
Two drivers handle each van and do their
own unloading. Dealers being served in
this manner express enthusiasm about
the service because damage is held to
a minimum.
Finally Tomlinson has developed a
merchandising "follow-through" which
has paid dividends. When a dealer sends
in a furniture order he includes the cus-tomer's
name. A special woven name-plate
is made up and attached to every
piece in an unobtrusive place. For in-stance,
a nameplate reading:
Furniture by Tomlinson
Tailor Made
for
Mr. & Mrs. John Doe
might be sewed on the spring cover be-neath
the cushion of a sofa.
A service questionnaire is sent to each
customer with an offer of a can of liquid
wax for filling out and returning the
form. Some typical questions ask how
Tomlinson furniture was introduced to
the customer, a commentary on the dis-play,
other pieces the customer is plan-ning
to buy, commentary on pieces pur-chased,
pieces wanted but not presently
available, magazine subscriptions, age
group, and names of other interested
persons.
Twenty Tomlinson salesmen are equip-ped
with film and slide machines used
to give the dealer an authentic back-ground
for sales talks and training aids
to floor personnel. Tomlinson quality is
the major selling point.
Plant personnel are never allowed to
forget the importance of the quality fac-tor.
A vigorous management-personnel
communications program is carried on by
Zalph Rochelle, Personnel Director, with
an in-plant publication called The Tom-linson
Announcer. The Announcer has a
columnist from each department; it is
heavily packed with "personals", trib-utes
from management, and constant re-minders
that Tomlinson's success is
—See TOMLINSON, Page 15=-
CAROLINA UPHOLSTERY HAS NINETEEN SALESMEN;
THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE PATTERNS, COLORS
By G. J. WlLLIARD
President & Founder
On April 1st 1940, we began manufac-turing
upholstered living room furni-ture.
Our present location is 201 S. Hamil-ton
Street, High Point. Here we have
our own show room with adequate space
for showing our entire line which now
consists of the following pieces:
French Provincial—Early American
100% Rubber Sofas and Chairs
Duncan Phyfe—Lawson Sofas and
Chairs
Odd Chairs, Modern Suites, Sectional
Groupings
King Sleepers, Sofa Beds and Chairs,
Platform Rockers and Dozers
We now have 19
salesmen represent-ing
our line through
the different States.
Our line is shown by
pictures and samples
of upholstered ma-terials
with the dif-ferent
colors.
Once each year
we issue a new cat-alog
with prices of
WlLLIARD our new numbers
added and the older pieces still showing.
Our construction is the best with style
and good combinations of covers with a
selections of approx. 375 patterns and
colors.
We have approximately 80 employees
including the frame plant. Our employees
are benefited by the Company assum-ing
a portion of the insurance payments
and a bonus at the end of the year.
Top left, shows J. D. (Spike) Yates at work. He is the man who made the first pieces of furniture
produced by Carolina Upholstery. (Right) Upholstery Superintendent Laurence Halker and Plant
Operations Superintendent Charles Stone look on as skilled upholsterer Jack Lewallen installs
rubber pieces in chair. (Bottom) Shows spring and chair construction and (right) cross-section
of upholstery end foam rubber.
PAGE 14 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
"Style and Craftsmanship" Comprise Heritage Philosophy; Drexel Divisions
Heritage Furniture, Inc. was organized
in 1937 in High Point, North Carolina
by Elliott S. Wood. Operations were
begun in an upstairs rented space with
only a few employees. The Heritage-
Morganton Companies now employ ap-proximately
1,200 employees.
The management has always had as
its basic philosophy to manufacture the
very highest quality furniture with the
emphasis placed upon style and crafts-manship.
The Heritage firm was incorporated in
1939 with Mr. Wood as president, a posi-tion
he still retains. Other officers are:
Rhett Ball, vice-president, director of
manufacturing; Tilman B. Thomas, sec-retary-
treasurer; John K. Dwyer, vice-president
and sales manager; Mel Binney,
vice-president in charge of merchandis-ing;
Don E. Smith, assistant secretary
and Tom Gooding, assistant treasurer.
The Company's main offices and High
Point showrooms are located at 1690
English Street. Permanent display space
is also maintained in the Merchandise
Mart Building in Chicago.
The Upholstery Plant, which produces
upholstered living room furniture, is
located at 741 Ward Street in High Point.
This plant was completed in August of
1955 and it is now the center of com-plete
upholstery operations for both Heri-tage
and Trende' (a division of Heri-tage).
The ten acre tract upon which
this plant is situated, provides adequate
storage space for two million feet of
lumber. The handling is minimized by
use of a fork-lift truck. A complete dry
kiln, lumber tempering storage space,
together with a hydraulic lumber lift is
included. This plant of masonry and
steel construction, has an enclosed floor
space of 160,000 sq. ft.
The Table Plant, which was originally
located at the English Street address,
now occupied by the offices and show-room,
moved to a new plant in Mocks-ville,
North Carolina in 1947. Early in
1951, this building was increased to
90,000 sq. ft. By 1955 demands made it
necessary to again expand and a further
addition was made. Increased lumber
tempering storage space was provided
Heritage Upholstery Plant located in High Point
Heritage Table Plant is Mocksville enterprise.
Morganton Furniture Company, Morganton is a Division of Drexel.
•UMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 15
n 1959 and the plant now exceeds 100,-
)00 sq. ft. It is U-shaped in design, has
;he latest and most modern equipment
md facilities, including railroad plat-
'orms, dry kilns, and lumber handling
equipment. It is conceded to be one of
:he most modern and best engineered
woodworking plants in the country. The
rable Plant produces occasional living-room
tables.
Heritage furniture is sold nation-wide
;o department and furniture stores and
;o interior decorators, and has its own
sales staff.
Morganton Furniture Company was
organized in 1904, and is said to be the
eldest manufacturing plant in Morgan-ton,
North Carolina. It is frequently re-ferred
to as "The Old Shop". Officers of
Morganton Furniture Company are: Elli-ott
S. Wood, president; Rhett Ball, vice-president;
Tilman B. Thomas, vice-presi-ient-
treasurer; and Don Smith, secretary
and assistant treasurer.
Morganton is under the active manage-ment
of Heritage. The acquisition of this
oedroom and dining room plant in 1957
supplemented the existing line of uphols-tered
living room furniture and tables
manufactured by the Heritage uphol-stery
and table plants. Morganton Furni-ture
Company manufacturers bedroom
and dining room furniture under the
Heritage trade name and also under its
awn trade name. Its products, like Heri-tage,
are nationally known and are sold
nation-wide by the Heritage sales or-ganization.
TOMLINSON
—Continued from page 13
—
founded on people doing quality work.
Monthly, each department is inspected
and rated by the president and the results
are published in The Tomlinson Announ-cer.
The ratings are based on the safety
and cleanliness of the operation. Tom-linson
probably has the cleanest plant
in the industry.
The firm president, William A. Tom-linson,
personifies Tomlinson's products.
He boldly asserts the company's role as
a design, production and merchandising
pioneer—putting into motion industrial
progress in new directions. First with
Sophisticate; then with Pavane.
"It is clear," Mr. Tomlinson says, "that
in America today there is a strong tide
of appreciation for the classical qualities
of timeless design which knows no period
and no geographical limitation. The con-ception
of a compatible realization of
classic architecture used in contempor-ary
North America became the task of
the Pavane Assemblage.
"The name Pavane is derived from the
Latin 'pavo', meaning 'peacock'. The
word itself is the name of a 17th Century
dance."
It is apparent that in this "dance"
Tomlinson knows all the steps, is paying
the fiddler, and is calling the turns. Mr.
Tomlinson states it clearly when he says,
"Pavane was designed for those who set
the pace."
Silver Craft: Custom Operation On A Volume Basis
What was conceived some fifteen years
ago as a "house and garage" type opera-tion
has, today, developed into one of the
leading furniture manufacturing firms of
the South. This would be Silver Craft
Furniture Company of High Point, North
Carolina.
Under the inspired leadership of the
late Philip A. Silver, founder and first
president, the expansion program had to
be initiated almost immediately. Within
five years, the firm moved to larger facil-ities
two times and the present plant site
has since been enlarged a total of four
times with the result that it is now double
its original capacity.
Mr. Silver applied the merchandising
experiences he had gained in more than
thirty years in the men's clothing indus-try
to his new venture—and made it
successful. As the firm grew, so-grew its
management team, new venture—and
made it successful. As the firm grew, so
grew its management team.
Norman Silver, the founder's son, join-ed
the firm immediately upon graduation
from the University of North Carolina.
Next came Darrell Pierce as production
manager and R. G. Smith, with forty
years in the upholstery fabric business,
as general superintendent. The team was
completed several years later when Irving
Silver, younger son of Philip, took his
place within the framework of the execu-tive
management organization.
It was, then, this group, which com-bined
the guidance of the founder and
R. G. Smith with the aggressiveness of
the Silver brothers and Darrell Pierce,
that brought Silver Craft to the high
position it now holds in the industry
among medium priced occasional chair
manufacturers.
With the untimely passing of Philip
Silver in 1959, his son, Norman, assum-ed
the presidency of the firm and the rest
of the management remained intact.
Shortly thereafter, Stanley Twigg of
Cleveland, Ohio, the Midwestern sales
representative for the firm, was appoint-ed
to the position of sales manager.
Twigg brought with him over twenty-five
years of furniture retailing experience
with Sterling-Linder-Davis Company,
prior to his Silver Craft affiliation.
In its initial operations, Silver Craft
was mainly a producer of budget priced
promotional chairs. Two years ago, the
firm decided to attempt to fill what it
considered was a definite void in the
industry. This was the medium priced
chair that offered the styling and broad
fabric selection usually associated with
higher priced furniture.
The changeover turned out to be even
more difficult than was originally antici-pated—
but the job was completed and
now Silver Craft feels that they have
created for themselves a definite unique
niche within the furniture industry. Ac-cording
to Stanley Twigg, the firm sells
service on an equal basis with merchan-dise.
They offer more than seventy dif-ferent
chair frames, more than four
hundred individual upholstery fabrics,
twelve hand-rubbed finishes, prompt
store-door delivery by its own truck fleet
in thirty-five states, and a compact cata-log-
fabric-book sales kit which facilitates
special order selling.
The firm tries to remain flexible
enough in their production and selling in
order that they may offer a few little
extras that the dealer appreciates. As an
example, if someone wishes a chair with
upholstering detail different from the
usual, the firm is willing and pleased to
accommodate them. In other words, they
have developed a custom operation on
a volume basis.
Even before the upgrading of the
Silver Craft line came about, the firm had
many "firsts" to its credit. The firm lays
title to being the first to offer its entire
line with the optional choice of tight
seat or loose cushion construction, which
was accomplished by a unique frame de-sign
conceived by R. G. Smith. It was
also the first, according to company of-ficials,
to offer top quality quilted fab-rics
in the popular priced furniture field.
Also they claim they were the first to of-fer
both woven and vinyl fabrics on their
entire line of chairs, including deep tuft-ed
backs and seats.
Most of the styles of both frame design
and fabric selection are the work of
Norman Silver with refinements suggest-ed
by the rest of the management staff.
Not only is appearance considered of ut-most
importance at Silver Craft but seat-ing
comfort is given equal attention.
Regarding upholstery fabrics, the firm
considers this to be one of the most im-portant
phases of their over-all planning.
They look at literally thousands of in-dividual
patterns at the beginning of each
season from which those to be used in
the new line are selected.
The management at Silver Craft has
the reputation for being among the hard-est
and longest working in the business.
However, according to the firm's presi-dent,
"we are glad to do it because we
know we are building something for the
future on which our dealers can depend
and of which each and everyone of us
can be proud."
Nonform Placements Dropped
In October
The one-third decline from September
was due to a substantial decrease in
nonfarm job orders received by the
local offices. The seasonal employment
decline in some industries, especially to-bacco
processing, made for fewer job
opportunities. Compared with October
1959, nonfarm placements decreased 6
per cent due to a slowdown in some
activities.
PAGE 16 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
ALL PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED BY Y. & J. ARE SOLD DIRECT TO USERS!
The Y & J Furniture Company of
Durham, N. C. first started operations
in September of 1946, basically as an
upholstering company.
Due to the long experience of the
founders, the making of reproductions
in the cabinet line soon became one of
the principal facets of the concern.
At present, the Y & J is strictly a
custom house, producing top quality re-productions
in the cabinet line in solid
mahogany, walnut, cherry and maple,
and also exquisite upholstered furniture
of a period nature.
The entire production of the factory
locate at 1612 E. Geer Street, Durham,
N. C. is sold directly to householders
from the showroom at the same location
Yorbroughs, Sr. & Jr.
and from a showroom located in Green-ville,
N. C.
In addition to the manufacturing men-tioned
above, the Company also does
restoration work on antique furniture;
and all types of refinishing and re-up-holstering,
offering the buyer one of
the largest selections of fabric samples
in this section.
Although its beginning was humble,
the Y & J has grown until it now em-ploys
25 people representing over 350
years experience and is one of the lead-ing
businesses of this type in the State.
Early American, Hepplewhite, Shera-tion
and Chippendale styles make up the
bulk of the reproductions, although some
orders for modern and Scandanavian
pieces have been filled.
Finishes are done by hand giving each
piece a soft and lustrous but dull finish.
Top coats are a very high solid content
lacquer having tremendous strength and
elasticity.
Extreme care is exercised in the pur-chase
of the lumber for the case goods
to insure that the best grades of kiln
dried lumber are used. Details of con-struction
of these pieces are given extra
attention in order that the customer will
receive furniture of such quality that a
life time of use can be expected from it.
In the upholstering line, only the very
best of webbing, springs, poly-foam and
foam rubber are used in conjunction with
curled hair and moss to form a founda-tion
that can be used over and over as
the owner re-upholsters in the years
following their purchase. The largest
cloth supply houses in the country are
represented in the thousands of samples
available for customers.
The restoration department follows an
age-old procedure for refinishing in that
pieces to be done first have the old finish
removed by use of a quick acting finish
remover requiring no stop-bath after ap-plication.
After waiting for this remover
to dry, the craftsman then takes the piece
apart, exposing all dowels and tenons.
All joints are cleaned and repaired and
then all parts are carefully sanded until
the natural wood is exposed. Then the
piece is re-assembled with animal glue
and new screws and set in clamps for
24 hours. After the clamps are removed,
a brief cleaning, and the piece is ready
for the finishing room.
Y & J provides a very unique service
in its finishing room in that it has been
designed with the idea of matching any
feasible finish a customer may desire.
The Company has been called on to pro-duce
many patterns and effects in special
finishes and the results have been good;
thus furthering the custom-house repu-tation
of the firm.
It is difficult to describe every func-tion
of Y & J, as it is one of the few
remaining real custom houses devoted
to the making of furniture to its cus-tomer's
specifications, but quality ma-terials
and craftsmanship, excellent serv-ice,
old-world charm, and variety would
best describe its operations.
M. S. Yarbrough, Jr.
Nonmanufacturing Placements
Mixed
Construction placements decreased
from last month with the approach of
cold weather, and also dropped under
October a year ago when building activi-ty
was more brisk. In trade and business
services, placements rose with the start
of the fall season.
Starting at top, L to R: Sheraton bed posts are turned by hand. Color being sprayed on mahogany
h
chest. Filler on chest is handrubbed. Chest case is hand fitted. Chest drawers of chest are handfitted. I
Drawer guide is installed on drawer. Finished Governor Winthrop desk. Chair in process of being up-bolstered.
Completed chair.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 17
HICKORY MANUFACTURING COMPANY'S FORMULA CONSISTS OF TWO PLANTS,
PLUS HARD WORK AND IDEAS, EQUAL SUCCESS
From a "run-down" plant with anti-quated
equipment to a modern plant well
equipped with the best in woodworking-machinery
and advanced manufacturing
methods in the comparatively short space
of sixteen years is the story of Hickory
Manufacturing Company.
The plants of Hickory Furniture Com-pany
and Martin Furniture Company,
who began operations in the early 1900's,
were acquired in April of 1944 by a
group of Hickory citizens headed by Cecil
T. Bost, A. Alex Shuford, Jr. and the late
Walker Lyerly. Then and there began
a long and expensive program of im-provements
and changes that has con-tinued
through the years. Besides much
new machinery and equipment, a number
of new buildings have been erected as
well as additions to existing buildings.
Among the new structures are a new and
modern office and show room building.
Another factory building was just recent-ly
completed and is now in use. The en-tire
plant is located in the Southeastern
section of Hickory on a seven acre tract
of land.
The Hickory Manufacturing Company
employs about 330 persons and manu-factures
bedroom, dining room and living
room furniture. Their line has been up-graded
in recent years and has many
times been the subject of feature articles
in national magazines and newspapers.
In addition to this, their product has been
displayed on television shows numerous
times.
About two years ago, they acquired
the services of Jim Peed as a full time
designer. Although a young man, Mr.
Peed has already gained national prom-inence
in the field of original and distinc-tive
designs and is also well known for
his ability in interior decorating. Among
his recent creations are the Signal Hill
and Faubourg collections of fine furni-ture.
Both of them are complete correlat-ed
groups of bedroom, dining room, living
room and occasional pieces.
The Signal Hill group is the oldest
and consequently the best known of the
two collections at the present time. This
group consists of about 70 pieces, many
of which are available in bright color
combinations. This, of course, gives one
an opportunity to express their taste with
design variations, enlivening color and
the contrasting natural wood finishes of
Butternut and Pecan. The design has
all of the airy freshness of the Far East.
The Faubourg group was shown for
the first time during the factory market
last October and created quite a sensa-tion.
It is a French collection of high
quality furniture. Many of these pieces
are also available in color in addition to
the natural wood finishes. There is an
antique white with gold and red over-tones.
A limited number of pieces can be
had in a royal red finish.
This company has manufactured din-ing
room and bedroom furniture since
the beginning. It was only about two
years ago that a limited number of liv-ing
room, or seating pieces were added to
the line. These were in the Danish Mod-ern
design with loose cushions. This part
of their manufacturing activity has been
developed and increased with other de-signs
and patterns and is now quite a
large part of their production.
In line with their established policy
of original designs, new things are being
developed for the Fall and Winter
markets.
C. T. Bost is president and treasurer
of the corporation and A. Alex Shuford,
Jr. is chairman of the board.
Placements in Manufacturing
Decreased Sharply
Seasonal tobacco processing place-ments
dropped from more than 8,000 in
September to about 1,800 in October.
This accounted for much of the over-all
decline in manufacturing and in total
nonfarm placements. Hiring in textile,
apparel, and furniture slowed down from
both September and October 1959, due
to adequate inventories and seasonal in-fluences.
Fine Products of Hickory Manufacturing Company, and trade-mark (inset).
PAGE 18 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Interesting Publications
Available From Bureau
Of Employment Security
The following- recently published pam-phlets
and booklets are available from
the Bureau of Employment Security,
Department of Labor, Washington 25,
D. C.
DDI—Bureau of Employment Security
Annual Report, Fiscal Year 1959.
FPC—Rural Development Program
News, No. 30, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
EEI—Cooperative Industry Relations
Programs have been developed with two
national trade associations about Em-ployment
Services available to their
members.
FRR—The Impact of Unemployment
in the 1958 Recession is the title of a
report by Wilbur J. Cohen, William
Haber, and Eva Mueller, Survey Re-search
Center, University of Michigan,
published by the Senate Special Com-mittee
on Unemployment Problems.
PMS—Economic Census 1958 Releases.
State reports, resulting from the 1958
Census of Business, Census of Manu-facturers,
and Census of Mineral In-dustries,
contain both State and area
data on employment and payrolls as well
as on other economic characteristics of
establishments covered by the Censuses.
PML—Military Prime Contract Awards
in Labor Surplus Areas, Office of the
Secretary of Defense. Information for
chronic labor surplus areas is tabulated
separately in both listings of this publi-cation.
For these publications, write directly
to the Bureau of Employment Security,
Department of Labor, Washington 25,
D. C. listing the three letter prefix of
every booklet and the full name (in
italics) of the report.
Right, and below are more products
of Hickory Manufacturing Company
Hickory Manufacturing Company plant. Hickory
i
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 19
Southern Desk Company Is Among The Nation's Top Five Furniture Producers
Eeported to be the largest manufac-turer
of church furniture in the world
and among the nation's top five produces
of furniture and seating for class-rooms,
dormitories, libraries, cafeterias, and
auditoriums, Southern Desk Company has
undergone twenty additions and expan-sions
since its beginning and is again
bursting at the seams. There are plans
underway at the present for a complete
new factory to relieve overcrowded con-ditions.
Since the Company offers more than
600 separate items in a variety of de-signs,
management
is faced with daily
production problems
uncommon to the
average furniture
maker. The wide
variety of items
which are available
in numerous designs
puts production al-most
in the custom
furniture division,
generally, and the IVEY
chancel furniture is almost completely
custom work.
To meet these complex production
problems, Southern Desk Company has
made tremendous growth in plant pro-duction,
physical facilities, and sales
activities in the past ten years. Ten years
ago the annual sales were $1.5 million.
During the past year sales totaled $8.25
million.
Special efforts have been made through
the installation of modern equipment and
methods to hold down the rising cost of
the finished product. Diversification has
aided in keeping cost down to a reason-able
level.
Southern Desk Company operates its
own stone fabricating department, its
own foundry, and lays its own plastic
tops, plywood panels and curved plywood
auditorium seats and backs. Through the
medium of a large and experienced de-sign
department, it is able to furnish the
customers with the assistance needed in
securing finished layouts of all types of
installations. It operates its own trans-portation
and installation services with
a fleet of twenty-three trucks and an
installation force of fifty persons almost
constantly on the move.
Southern Desk Company buys over
$1.25 million in top grade lumber each
year, totaling some 8.5 to 9 million board
feet. It maintains a constant inventory
of three million or more board feet,
valued at approximately $600,000. Ap-proximately
sixty-five percent of the
lumber used is oak, twenty-five percent
is hard maple, and the rest is mahogany
and other species.
When the lumber is first received into
the plant it is sent through a rough
double planer. Next, the boards are sent
to the cut-off saws to obtain the best
possible number of required lengths from
the lumber at hand. Then comes the
ripping in which five rip-saws are used.
The boards at this point are either sent
through the glue-jointer or the molder.
A Greenlee single surfacer and a Buss
double surfacer are used in the next step,
followed by two Greenlee double-end
tenoners.
Other steps which follow include trim-
Top (left) Sanding a pencil slot in a school desk top with a Pearson spool sander is Ray Cook, operator. (Right) Sketching a proposed modification is
Fred Marshall (left), design engineer, while W. H. Parks, vice president in charge of manufacturing, looks on. Bottom, Hand sanding seal coat on a pew
tront screen in -the finishing department. (Right) James C. Barnes is finishing pew ends as they pass on a conveyor chain through spray booth.
PAGE 20 THE £. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
PROGRESS PICTURES AT SOUTHERN DESK COMPANY—HICKORY.
Aerial view of Southern Desk Company's factory and facilities and the lumber yard at Hickory.
Top (L to R) One of two Columbia veneer presses in which the glue line is curved by a 10KW high frequency generator. Horace Keller is loading the unit.
(Right) 16-foot glue reels are being operated here by Orin McCray and Paul Christopher. Bottom, Sanding operations at Southern Desk Company are exten-sive.
Ralph Shrum (right) is shown feeding the 6-inch Molsander as Bill Ward off-loads. (Right) One of several such machines at Southern Desk, this Green-lee
545 double and tetoner is being operated by Pete Lowman.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 21
ming, boring and chucking- or shaping,
as the case might be in the production
of various items. Two hydraulic veneer
presses and a new Columbia Hot-Plate
Shuttle Press are used for laying ply-wood
panels and curved auditorium seats
and backs.
Approximately thirty different machines
are installed in the sanding department
ranging from a twenty-four foot belt
sander down to small drum sanders.
Since much of the Company's production
requires an extremely careful finishing
job, the sanding department is a critical
one. Southern Desk Company employs
about 800 at peak periods and has a pay-roll
of approximately $2.5 million per
year. It also has twenty-two full time
salesmen and eighteen distributors.
A subsidiary, Southern Dowel Com-pany,
located in Hickory adjacent to the
parent firm, turns out over three million
dowels per week and is said to be the
largest manufacturer of its kind in the
South. It produces standard three-eights
inch and seven-sixteenths inch dowels in
lengths from one to two and one-half
inches, as well as a limited supply of
dowel rods from three-fourths to one
inch in diameter.
Leon S. Ivey is President and General
Manager of the Company, Albert N.
Spencer is Executive Vice-President and
Treasurer, William H. Parks is Vice-
President and Plant Manager and J. D.
Green is Secretary.
The founder of Southern Desk Com-pany,
the late George F. Ivey of Hickory,
began his business career in textile mills.
In 1908 he invented a wooden lug strap
used in the mills. His venture into wood-working
began with making these straps,
picker sticks, and other loom supplies for
cotton mills. In 1911 Mr. Ivey decided to
begin making school desks, and the name
of Southern Desk Company was adopted.
When founded, the Company occupied
a small vertically planked building sixty-feet
long and forty feet wide. In just a
short time it was necessary to double
this space with an addition of the same
dimensions and construction.
In 1915 the first unit of the present
permanent brick construction was built.
On July 1, 1948 the Company was chang-ed
from a partnership to a corporation
with the founder as President. He con-tinued
to direct the growth and destiny
of the company until his death on Octo-ber
1, 1952, when Leon S. Ivey, his son,
suceeded him as President. In 1951 a new
plant was constructed to house the manu-facture
of the wooden dowel operation of
the Company. These dowel pins are used
in the manufacture of furniture. On Jan-uary
1, 1953, this operation was incor-porated
as the Southern Dowel Company
and is a subsidiary corporation of South-ern
Desk Company.
On August 19, 1952, the physical prop-erty
of the Winston Manufacturing Com-pany,
a woodworking plant located in
the adjacent town of Longview, about a
mile west of the main plant, was pur-chased.
This was incorporated as the
Southern Church Furniture Company on
the date of purchase. On September 1,
1955, this Company was merged with
Southern Desk Company as Plant No. 2
to provide better production coordination.
More Jobseekers
But Fewer Job Openings in October
More individuals filed new job appli-cations
than in September. Registered
applicants actively seeking jobs were
also more numerous. This moderate rise,
coupled with an even greater decline in
job openings, resulted in a ratio of 18.4
applicants for each available nonfarm
job opening at end of October as com-pared
with 13.8 applicants a month
earlier and in October 1959.
Top (left) Lumber inventory of three million ooard feet of Appalachian hardwoods and mahogany is maintained. Two Ross 9-ton lumber lifts are used
in yard handling. (Right) Auditorium seats are being finished here in a 24-foot DeVilbiss water wash spray booth. Bottom, Feeding drawer sides into a
6-inch Mattison molder are Fred Icard (left) and Glenn Matthews. (Right) Spot welding steel chair frames on a Seiake Kva welder are craftsmen Clyde
Jolly and Arthur Jenkins.
PAGE 22 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Whether You Want to Recline, Vibrate, or Swivel — CaliLounger Makes It!
CaliLounger, Inc. located at Kerners-ville,
N. C, started production opera-tions
in February of 1957. Progress has
been rapid where today CaliLounger
builds the worlds finest vibrating, reclin-ing
and swivel rocker chairs.
CaliLounger products are distributed
at leading stores throughout the United
States. Warehouses are maintained at
many leading cities throughout the
United States.
Quality is a CaliLounger motto and is
apparent upon comparison with other
products. An example of the quality of
our product is apparent when one con-siders
that they have been ordered by the
General Services Administration for use
by our armed forces.
Some of the fine chairs manufactured by CaliLounger or Kcrno;sviile.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 23
Everyone at CaliLounger takes pride
in the quality of workmanship. Many of
our people have years of furniture manu-facturing
- business. Our people are local
residents, active in community, govern-mental
and religious affairs.
Pictured on pages with this article are
many of the products manufactured by
this Kernersville Company. From the
drawing table to the packing case, all
work on the chairs is done in the factory
by experienced personnel who pride
themselves on their workmanship.
Frame welding is done on special
welding machines which instantly bond
two pieces of metal together into a
single piece which is stronger than the
original. The steel fabrications are
placed in a manually held jig and the
welders make the necessary welds in an
instant. While electric welding is used in
the majority of operations, some of the
more delicate and tediuous jobs are done
by acetelyne torch. These employes are
men with years of experience in this
exacting work.
Whether you desire one of the small
cocktail swivels or one of the sumptuous
massage easy chairs, the same care goes
into its manufacture. Another unique
feature of the chairs manufactured by
this company is that only the addition
of a small, fractional horsepower motor
is necessary to give you a vibrating
massage when the chair has been built
by CaliLounger. All chairs may be
brought with or without the motor, and
it may be added at a later date if not
wanted at the time of the original pur-chase.
All factory working spaces are large,
airy in summer and warm in winter.
Plenty of space is allotted each crafts-man
whether he be in the wood-working
shop, the steel fabricating unit, or the
cutting room where thousands of yards
of lovely materials are stored and which
are used to upholster the chairs.
Airfoam as well as other substances
are used for upholstering and the ma-terials
used depend upon the choice of
the purchasers.
In the cloth or fabric room, cutters
follow patterns laid on top of hundreds
of pieces of fabric and with special
cutting machines cut a couple of hundred
sets of coverings at the time. These are
carefully inspected prior to and after
application to the chairs. Some of the
covers have to be vulcanized in special
presses which give a richer appearance
and longer lasting, more serviceable unit
for customers.
Visitors to the plant say they have
never seen a group of people so dedi-cated
to turning out a good product in
such a short time. Evidence of the
quality is reinforced by the steady in-crease
of orders which are received each
month. Most of the growth is attributed
to the product, but the rest of the credit
must go to the managerial staff of the
company.
Officers of CaliLounger, Inc.: C. H.
Nyssen, President; R. E. Allamon, Gen-eral
Manager; R. C. Bourdon, Vice Presi-dent;
F. A. Carstensen, Sales Manager,
and E. G. Moorman, Secretary-Treasurer.
CaliLounger employees take pride in products
like these. Five more chairs with which CaliLounger has made hits.
PAGE 24 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
Caldwell Furniture Company, Maker of Fine Furniture Since January 15, 1909
Caldwell Furniture Company, Lenoir,
was organized and incorporated January
15, 1909 and currently is celebrating its
fifty-first year of continuous operation
in the manufacture of quality furniture.
Both bedroom and dining room furniture
are produced in a wide selection of fin-ishes
in Modern and Traditional styles.
Its products are sold throughout the
United States with fifty sales representa-tives
covering the entire country. Ware-houses
are located in principal cities and
permanent showrooms are maintained in
New York, Chicago, High Point, Los
Angeles, San Franciso, and in its own
showrooms at the factory.
Present officers are A. L. Moore, presi-dent;
J. M. Gossler, vice-president and
treasurer; J. M. Gossler, Jr., secretary
and assistant treasurer; John R. Beard,
vice-president and general manager, and
T. W. Shuford, Jr., assistant vice-presi-dent
in charge of sales.
In recent years the Company has com-pleted
a program of rebuilding and mod-ernizing
all buildings to brick and steel
construction with all departments fully
conveyorized and utilizing the most mod-ern
machinery and equipment through-out.
The plant has a floor space of 497,-
000 square feet and employs over 500
workers. The Company operates its own
Veneer Mill Plant a few miles east of
Lenoir producing cross-banding veneer,
manufactures its own plywood, and in
1956 added a modern Chip Core Plant
to its operation in Lenoir. In addition to
supplying its own needs, chip-core and
plywood produced are also sold to other
manufacturers.
"Furniture South" Magazine
Same Age As Jack Benny
"Furniture South" magazine, with
executive offices in the Exposition Build-ing
at High Point, reached the age of
39 this year. Along with Jack Benny it
can henceforth celebrate the anniversary
of its 39th birthday, or it can go on to
the age of 40 where life is supposed to
begin.
Many of the magazine's former editors
have gone on to bigger things. Harold
Bennett who heads Bennett Advertising
is one. Others head advertising agencies
in other states, are in the newspaper
and radio fields and all are writers of
note in their own right.
Some of the fine suites manufactured by Caldwell Furniture Company of Lenoir. Plant is pictured in lower right hand corner.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 25
3 Employes +$22r000 +17 Years; Equals 200 Employes & $1 Million at Hammary
Article and Pictures by
John A. Alicki, Personnel Director
Hammary Manufacturing Corporation
first began its operations 17 years ago as
Hammary Manufacturing Company,
Hamilton L. Bruce, proprietor, in a most
humble manner and a very small factory
located in an alley between Harper and
West Avenues in downtown Lenoir,
North Carolina. At that time there were
only three employees. These were Mr.
Hamilton L. Bruce, and two others. The
principal item of manufacture was the
rockerless rocker lawn chairs. Total op-
1. General view of finishing end secfion of Machine Department. 2. Gene Williams, Bynum Pennell, Henry Rich and Bob Cannon, Handling and Packing
Crew with imported marble. 3. Sherril Greene, Dewey Cannon, Roby Cannon, Theodore Greene, packing crew, with Foreman Harly Hodge. 4. Hugh
Watson, machine set-up man, setting up the horizontal automatic boring machine. 5. Ray Austin, side stroke operator. Sanding Dept., inspecting a side
rail which is a component part of a table. Edd Nelson, Jr. is supervising foreman. 6. Donald McCall, John McLean and Richard Bumgarner, Sanding Dept.
Employees are operating a Sherrill flat sander. 7. Clyde Whittington, Larry Bryant, Wade Austin, foreman; Paul Starnes and Donald Triplett, finishing
dept. Blending room employees blending uniform colors into the table. 8. Tommy Martin, David Craia, Billy German, Philmore Adams, and Harley Blevins,
Finishing Dept., rub room employees cleaning excessive fine oils and rubbing compounds off tables. 9. Edward Allen and Lex Hamby, stain sprayers. 10.
Unfinished Hammary French Provincial cocktail tables on assembly line in Cabinet Dept. moving toward Finishing Department. 11. George Cowley, laying
up lumber for cut-off saw. Bill Chapman, cut-off saw operator is in the background. 12. Some of the office employees: Joyce Story, Brenda Bradshaw,
Elizabeth Denny, Nancy Steele, Madeline Knight, and Barbara Clark. 13. Hammary truck backing toward Shipping Dept. and loading ramp. 14. Part of the
main office building, grounds, road and parking space. 15. Ronnie Burchette, George Lamberth and George Woods, Jr., lumber yard employees unloading
silver leaf maple lumber from Missouri. 16. Exterior view of the main office.
PAGE 26 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
1. The accounts receivable office section and left to right are Ruby Jones, credit manager and secretary Joyce Story. 2. Some of the office employees.
(Left) Lois Benfield and Joyce Story, (Right) Brenda Bradshaw and Peggy Hawkins. 3. Hammary plant showroom. 4. Hammory Manufacturing Corpora-tion's
main offices and showrooms. 5, 6, 7, & 8 depict Hammary tables.
More products of Hammary Manufacturing are shown above.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 27
HAMMARY DAILY ACTIVITIES
1. Some Hammary employees punching out after the day's work. 2. Lumber yard and new shed for storing dry lumber. 3. Cody Lowe, Jr., purchasing agent,
and Charles "Bill" McMillan, plant superintendent discuss lumber production requirements. 4. Receiving end of machine department and in the background
are part of the dry ki'ns and warehouse area. 5. In the Machine Department is operator Austin Green for hand shaper machine. 6. Lawrence Abernathy,
operates vertical shaper. As he works the lines of the French Provincial come out in the side rails for the tables. 7. Busalee Gragg, Ray Shumate, and
Wade Austin, finishing Department foreman. Gragg is using a tooling iron and is applying a 24 carat gold tool on a leather top table. 8. Walter Taylor,
Maintenance Department Machinist, works on a Delta Drill Press. Note the eye protective measures bein3 taken. Safety is uppermost at Hammary. 9.
Taking a break are employees David Craig, Philmore Adams, Lynn Dishman, Basil Kirby, Jay Curtis, and Fred Holbrook. 10. Some of the Shipping
Department employees (L to R) Kenneth Bradshaw, Marshall Bradshaw, Harry CEontz, Willie Taylor, Bob Hass, Lonnine Bradshaw, Ronnie Everhart, Lex
Adkins, foreman, and Charles Harmon. 11. Nancy Steele handling the switchboard. 12. Shown are Robert Nelson, Clarence Greene, Barney Cooke, Cabinet
Department foreman, Herbet Land, and Johnnie Miller, Inspector. This is part of the table assembling section. In the foreground can be seen the air
clamp unit with the table in bottom side position. This unit clamps all table leg joints into table rails in one operation. 13. (L to R) Banner Sanders,
Machine Dept., and Charles R. McMillan, Plant Superintendent. 14. Here are seen Line Rip Saw Operator Bill Gilbert and Helper or Tail Rip Saw Operator
Fred Greer. 15. Turning Lathe Operator Zee Baker. 16. Paul Sanders, Roy Gragg, Jimmy Shell and Ralph Shell are hand carving operators in the Machine
Department,
North Carolina State Library
Raieigh
PAGE 28 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
erational cost then amounted to over
$22,000.00 per annum.
In 1945, the Hammary Manufacturing-
Company was incorporated and Mr.
Hamilton L. Bruce was elected as cor-poration
president. The new corporation
then built a new factory on a 12 acre site
off the Hickory Road now known as U. S.
Highway 321A, four miles East of Lenoir,
North Carolina. Principal product of
manufacture at the new plant was and
still is the finest quality type occasional
tables in the South.
Since then, they have gradually ex-panded
and improved their plant facilities
which today include the Main Offices and
Showroom building, Machine Department
building housing the most efficient wood-working
machines and operators avail-able,
Cabinet and Sanding Department
building employing the most experienced
operators in the field of sanding and as-sembling
operations in the State, Finish-ing
Department building consisting of
stain, filler and lacquers spray booths,
dry ovens, extreme dry air compart-ments,
fine hand sanding facilities, wash
ccat and spray operations which contain
the wood grain raising substance. Var-ious
expert operated processes in clean-ing,
drying, sealing, shading, lacquering,
hand rubbing, and buffing. Also, a glazing-process
for the purpose of obtaining var-ious
true colors of cherry, maple, ma-hogany,
walnut, pecan, antique white,
and many others. In addition, this depart-ment
maintains a complete genuine
leather finishing operation. There are
modern paint storage facilities, a new
lumber storage area and sheds, boiler-room
building and dry kilns. Then, there
is the Packing and Shipping Department
building which also houses an imported
marble supply section. The marble is im-ported
from Portugal and Italy, and is
in great demand by the buyers of Ham-mary
marble top tables. Other facilities
consists of warehouses, rail and truck
loading and unloading ramps, Mainten-ance
Department building, modern fire-prevention
equipment, excellent water
facilities as well as electrical power sup-ply,
and paved roads with ample parking-facilities.
Recently, they have added their
own fleet of trucks, expanded their ware-house
facilities, and completed building
an additional wing to the Finishing De-partment
building.
In November 1957, Hammary Manu-facturing
Corporation amalgamated its
sales, designs, and production facilities
with the Imperial Furniture Company
of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This amalga-mation
has made the associated firms one
of the largest table producers in the
nation.
Today Hammary Manufacturing Cor-poration
is a real entity in the table
manufacturing business, holding a most
prominent position sales wise with the
best furniture and department stores
across the nation. Most HAMMARY
TABLES are shown at the Furniture
Market exhibits during April and Octo-ber
at their own showrooms at the Ham-mary
Plant in Lenoir. In January and
June, in the Hammary space in the
Southern Furniture Exposition Building,
High Point, North Carolina, as well as
in the American Furniture Mart Build-ing
in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York.
Its sales force extends throughout the
United States and Canada.
Plant inventory and equipment is valu-ed
well over $1,000,000.00. Its payroll
for over 200 employees amounts to over
three quarter million dollars per annum.
They are members of the National As-sociation
of Manufacturers and the
Southern Furniture Manufacturer's As-sociation.
Officers of the Corporation are: Mr.
Hamilton L. Bruce, President and Gen-eral
Manager; Mr. Thomas G. Terrell,
Vice-President and Production Manager;
Mr. James C. Sullivan, Treasurer; Mrs.
Mary Buys Bruce, Secretary.
NOTE: All photos by John A. Alicki,
Personnel Director.
World's Largest Bureau
Built in 1926 and used until 1951 as
the office of the High Point Chamber of
Commerce, a bureau 22 feet high, in-cluding
a 16-foot mirror, 27 feet wide
and 14 feet deep is the world's largest.
It was moved five blocks from its
original location to the corner of Hamil-ton
and Howell Streets where it serves
as headquarters for the High Point and
State Junior Chambers of Commerce
Headquarters.
1. Shown in front of the Showroom Building of Hammary are office employees Nancy Steele, and
and Finishing Dept. Foreman Wade Austin discuss the operation. 3. Showroom of the plant. 4. (L
Brenda Bradshaw. 2. Factory Office Shirley Hemphill, |
_ to Ft) President Bruce, Treasurer James Sullivan, and I
Vice President Thomas G. Terrell who is also production manager. 5, 6, 7, & 8 are more beautiful Hammary tables.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 29
Philpott Furniture Corporation Was Organized In 1955 On A 25-Acre Plot
main building-,
In 1955, United Furniture Corporation
purchased the twenty-five acres and
buildings on which were located the idle
Barbet Cotton Mills and a new corpora-tion—
Philpott Furniture Corporation
—
was organized. It was found that the
ninety thousand square
feet on three levels,
could be well adapt-ed
to a furniture
operation, with min-or
changes.
Adjacent to the old
4§*. building was a mill
, ****" pond which the new
^*.*w- «. owners drained and
fm^^U filled in. On part of
\ ^^k % I^*(i, this tract, dry-kilns
t-is3^k A aBfife and cooling sheds
were erected and the
was reserved for lumber
MYERS
remainder
storage.
A three-story brick and concrete struc-ture
was built at one end of the old
building and with the addition of other
building's, including the dry kilns and
storage buildings, the plant began opera-tions
in July, 1956. A number of experi-enced
workers and foremen had been
transferred from the United plant to
help get production started.
For the fast and efficient handling of
incoming lumber, Philpott shares with
United a unique facility. Most lumber
arrives on pallets by truck. A fork lift
truck removes the lumber from the
trucks in a matter of minutes. The lum-ber
is placed at the "feed" end of a
belt-conveyor and the lumber inspector
measures and grades each piece of lum-ber
as it moves along the conveyor to
the automatic lumber stacker. When a
stack of lumber has been thus accumulat-ed,
a fork lift truck moves it to the
lumber storage area where it is allowed
to air dry before being kiln dried as
needed. Then the lumber is ready for the
cut-off saw.
In the Rough End Department rough
lumber is raised by an elevator from the
kiln level to the processing area. After
passing through one of the cut-off saws
the only belt-conveyor in the plant car-ries
the lumber to the planer.
The Finishing and Rubbing Depart-ments
are located on the top floor of the
main building. The spray booths are of
the latest waterfall type with powerful
exhaust fans drawing the air and vapors
through the falling water and then up
and out through the roof. Each piece of
electrical equipment is sealed, with
switches and bulbs spark-proof.
In spite of the fact that the machinery
and equipment represent the very latest
in efficient wood-working technique, a
large amount of hand work goes into the
furniture manufactured by Philpott.
There is no conveyor system with the ex-ception
of the belt conveyor located in
the Rough End Department. This is pos-sible
because the type of furniture which
the firm makes does not lend itself to be-ing
conveyorized.
Philpott Furniture Corporation is an
affiliate of United Furniture Corporation
and represents an originial investment
of one million dollars. Philpott's pro-ducts,
a high grade of bedroom and
dining room furniture, are sold under the
United trade-name by United's sales or-ganization.
Officers of United hold the same posi-tions
in the Philpott firm. Superintendent
at Philpott is A. B. Myers, who manages
the plant with a current work force of
over 300 people.
Pictures of Philpott Furniture Plant
and other products may be seen on
next page.
Pieces from Philpott Furniture's Cumberland Collection in Mellow Pecan.
PAGE 30 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
WILMINGTON STORY
—Continued from page 5
—
ranks only sixth in size among the manu-facturing
industries, it has contributed
greatly to the area's manufacturing
growth in recent years. Only a few years
ago, this industry's employment was
practically nil. Today, Babcock and Wil-cox
Company, Inc., is the dominant em-ployer
in this group and one of the major
establishments in the Area.
The Area's large textile employment
is concentrated in four plants as follows:
the Spofford Mills, Inc., which makes
broadwoven cotton fabrics; Timme Corp.,
which manufactures broadwoven fabrics
chiefly of man-made fibers; Diamond
Mills Corp., a seamless hosiery plant;
and the lace goods plant of Mozur Laces,
Inc. Illustrative of the growth in textile
employment in the Area is its 83 per
cent rise from 1950 to the first quarter
of 1960 as compared with a state-wide
loss of 2.5 per cent for this industry.
The apparel division, which now con-sists
of seven plants, has also enjoyed a
sharp gain over the years, although not
as great as the state-wide gain—63 vs
164 per cent. Most of these apparel firms
are large, such as Garver Mfg. Corp. and
Southland Mfg. Co., which make sport
shirts, France Neckwear Mfg. Co., and
the Mojud Lingerie plant.
Employment in the food products divi-sion
increased 45 per cent from 1950 to
1960 as compared with a 67 per cent
growth for the State. Nevertheless, this
diversified division provides a number of
jobs for workers in the Area. There are
meat packers, such as Wilmington Pack-ing
and Wanets Sausage; dairy plants,
such as National Dairy; bakeries, such
as American Bakeries, Foxs Royal and
National Biscuit; bottling plants; et
cetera.
The lumber and wood products in-dustry
has declined in New Hanover as
it has statewide during the 1950-1960
period, only at a greater rate—41 per
cent vs. 16 per cent. Nevertheless, this
division still employs an average of
about 675 workers.
The widest divergence between local
and state employment trends occurred
in chemicals as New Hanover suffered a
14 per cent decline between 1950 and
1960 as compared with a significant 42
per cent rise for the State. It should be
recognized, however, that fertilizer, the
branch of the industry which dominates
in the Wilmington Area, has not been
one of the chemical segments showing
the best gains, as for example synthetic
fibers.
While county-wide insured employ-ment
has slightly exceed the state-wide
growth during the past decade, what has
the population been doing? It also has
been rising at a slightly faster rate;
namely 13.4 per cent as compared with
12.2 per cent for the state.
In 1959, workers in insured employ-ment
in New Hanover County received
wage payments totaling $46.6 million
which represented a gain of 94 per cent
over wages received in 1950. During the
same period, the state-wide gain in in-sured
wage payments was only 91 per-cent.
The average weekly earnings per
worker in New Hanover, nevertheless,
was only $60.51 in 1959/ as compared with
$67.13 for the State. Per capita income
figures tell a different story, however.
According to the per capita income study
made by the State Department of Tax
Research, New Hanover had a per capita
income of $1,881 in 1958 as compared
with a state-wide average of only $1,420;
and the County ranked fourth in the
State with only Mecklenburg, Forsyth
and Guilford having higher per capita
income. Moreover, based on earlier per
—See WILMINGTON, page 34—
B^WMNnf™" ""
*
I i '*»*"^ "
|i[ :"*-* j^*
«-»
=
jl _.* -
IMJBBH^^^^^*»->
Top: The Florentine Group—Antique Fruitwood Finish on Cherry.
Bottom: An off-white French Provenciol bedroom group—The Parisian.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 31
PEERLESS HAS FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN MATTRESS MAKING
MOFFITT
The Peerless Mattress Company was
incorporated on July 22, 1902. The in-corporators
were W. E. Holt, Jr., C. A.
Hunt, Jr., Joe V. Moffitt, Sr., J. N. Men-denhall,
and L. L. Barbee, all of Lexing-ton.
On February 10, 1915, J. V. Moffitt
signed a consent to dissolution as sole
owner of all stock. The plant had been
totally destroyed by
fire in late January
or early February
of the same year.
The plant was re-built
shortly after
the fire.
The original plant
had started opera-tions
in July, 1902,
in the old brick a-cademy
building be-tween
Seventh and
Eighth Avenues on South Main Street
in Lexington.
Peerless is apparently the pioneer
manufacturer of bedding in the two
Carolinas.
Peerless was again incorporated on
July 1, 1946, with paid in capital stock of
$200,000. At that time Peerless Mattress
Company was a manufacturer of mat-tresses
and box springs and a distributor
of Armstrong and Congoleum Nairn and
Bird & Son Floor Products.
J. V. Moffitt, Sr. died on September
21, 1948. He was succeeded by Mrs. J. V.
Moffitt, Sr. as president of the company.
The writer retained the position of sec-retary-
treasurer.
On January 1, 1953, Peerless Mattress
Company joined the Sealy licensee group.
Sealy is a combination of 28 U. S. and
five Canadian plants, banded together to
manufacture a uniform nationally adver-tised
product. Sealy, Incorporated, main-tains
offices at 666 North Lake Shore
Drive, Chicago, Illinois.
With the Sealy franchise the business
of Peerless Mattress Company has ap-proximately
tripled. The principal pro-duct
is, of course, the Sealy Posturepedic
innerspring mattress, glossy photo of
which is enclosed.
A separate corporation was formed on
January 1, 1953, titled "Sealy of the
Carolinas, Incorporated", the capital
stock of which is owned by Peerless Mat-tress
Company.
Two years later another separate cor-poration,
Peerless, Incorporated, for the
distribution of floor covering, with ware-houses
at 219 South Caldwell Street in
Charlotte and 309 East Green Street in
High Point, was formed. This corpora-tion
is also owned outright by Peerless
Mattress Company.
Peerless Mattress Company and its
subsidiaries today employ slightly more
than 100 people. The nationally adver-tised
Sealy product is offered in North
and South Carolina. The Peerless Mat-tress
Company private brand product is
also offered in the same states and in
Virginia, West Virginia, and Georgia. Ten
trucks, each with a capacity of approxi-mately
eighty matresses or box springs,
are operated for the delivery of the com-pany
bedding product to retail furniture
stores. There are approximately 57,000
square feet of floor space in the complete-ly
conveyorized factory building and
warehouses in Lexington. Distribution
warehouses are operated by the company
in Charlotte, High Point, Greenville, N.
C, Greenville, S. C, and Columbia, S. C.
Peerless Product
"The Chair of
Thomasville"
"The Chair of Thomasville" has long
been the symbol of the principal industry
in the City of Thomasville. The first
chair, located in the center of the com-munity
between the railroad and the
main street, was erected in September,
1922. Because of deterioration, this chair
was removed in the 1935-36 period and
in 1949 the construction of a larger and
a more permanent chair was completed.
The first chair contained enough lum-ber
to manufacture 100 ordinary chairs.
It was 13 feet high, with the seat six
feet above the foundation; front legs
were six feet high, six feet apart in the
front and six and one-half feet apart in
the back. Construction of this chair re-quired
three men working 10 hours a
day for one week in the plant of the
Thomasville Chair Co. Expense of mak-ing
this chair was borne by Col. Frank S.
Lambeth, secretary and treasurer of the
Standard Chair Co., and Charles F.
Finch, vice-president and manager of
the Thomasville Chair Co.
The new chair of steel and concrete
is an exact duplication of the original
Duncan Phyfe as displayed in Washing-ton
and is built six times as large as the
original in all proportions. The back
legs are 18 feet high and the front legs
are nine feet high; the front legs are
9 3/4ths. feet apart and the back legs
are 10% feet apart. The chair is built
on four steel and concrete pedestals two
feet by four feet and 12 feet from the
ground. Around these pedestals is built
a base 22 feet square with concave
corners; 16 inch solid brich wall veneered
with eight inch limestone blocks, with
carving and molding and around the top
are eight carved eagles, one in the center
of each of the four sides and one in the
center of each of the concave corners.
This present chair was built by a local
commercial artist and one full-time and
one part-time helper. It is hand molded
around a steel frame with a mixture of
concrete and granite dust, with openings
to fill the inside, thus making a solid
structure. The time required for con-struction
was approximately ten months.
This new project, supervised by the
Thomasville Chamber of Commerce, was
made possible by the cooperation of the
city, industry, local business firms and in-dividual
citizens.
On the floor of the base is a bronze
plaque bearing the following inscription:
"The Chair" of Thomasville—The
Chair is an exemplar and an inspira-tion
for the future generations to
emulate and perpetuate the achieve-ments
of our time-honored furniture
designers and craftsmen. . . . The
original chair was the creation of the
famous American designer, Duncan
Phyfe. 1950. Thomas Johnson, Del.,
James Harvey, Sculp.
PAGE 32 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
UNITED FURNITURE CORPORATION WAS ORGANIZED IN 1920 BY PHILPOTT
B. C. PHILPOTT
United Furniture Corporation had its
beginning in the latter part of 1920 when
B. C. Philpott, Sr., and associates of Bas-sett,
Virginia, purchased the idle Atlas
Furniture Company plant at Lexington,
North Carolina. A new company, United
Furniture Company, was organized im-mediately,
and Mr.
Philpott moved to
North Carolina to
serve as president of
the new manufac-turing
concern. In
spite of the fact that
operations were be-gun
during the re-cession
period fol-lowing
World War I,
the company was
successful from the
beginning.
The plant which originally consisted
of two framed buildings connected by a
tram-way, was improved and expanded
throughout the years. During this time
the company manufactured medium-priced
household bedroom furniture.
Just as the company was moving ag-gressively
ahead in the furniture indus-try,
disaster struck suddenly. Although
the plant was sprinklered, a fire broke
out in the finishing
room shortly after
midnight on May 1,
1936, completely de-stroying
the plant
and much of the
lumber on the com-pany's
yard in Lex-ington's
biggest fire.
Undaunted, in the
fall of that same
year, Mr. Philpott,
c. philpott along with his sons
and other associates, purchased the Elk
Furniture Company, which was located
near the site of the destroyed United
Plant. The new United Furniture Cor-poration
then came into being. This
plant, which in 1936 consisted of framed
buildings has been completely renovated
PHILPOTT
and expanded over a period of years and
is now completely bricked in.
Much additional adjacent property has
been purchased from time to time on
which additional buildings have been
erected to keep pace with the company's
growth.
One interesting fea-ture
of the com-pany's
physical plant
is a novel and prac-tical
undei'ground
tunnel which con-tains
a double-track
conveyor connecting
the packing room
with the warehouse.
The tunnel passes
under a Lexington
city street although
few motorists are aware that the tunnel
exists. The company had to secure special
permission from the City of Lexington
to construct the tunnel.
In 1955, upon the death of the founder
of the company, his eldest son, H. Cloyd
Philpott, was named Chairman of the
Board while continuing in his position as
President. Cloyd joined the company in
the late 1920's and gained experience in
various departments while serving as
Secretary-Treasurer.
Three of the other
sons of the founder
are active in the
company. J. Alvin
and Hubert J. Phil-pott
serve as Vice-
Presidents and J.
Robert Philpott is
Secretary-Treasurer.
Robert is currently
serving as President
H. J. philpott of the Southern
Furniture Manufacturer's Association, a
post Cloyd also held previously.
R. L. "Jack" Myers, a native of Thom-asville,
serves as Superintendent of Unit-ed
as well as General Manager of United
and its affiliate, Philpott Furniture Cor-poration.
J. A. PHILPOTT
With the increasing importance of
North Carolina as a Market Center, Unit-ed
has had to constantly enlarge its
showroom space in Lexington. The
fourth expansion resulted in the com-pletion
of a large, modern showroom
building which was opened for the first
time at the October
Market in 1959.
The Showroom, ad-joining
the com-pany's
offices, has
twenty - thousand
square feet for dis-play
purposes. In
addition, the build-ing
contains an at-tractive
foyer and
reception room, a
spacious Salesmen's room, conference
rooms, a kitchen and dining room.
In planning new patterns, many ques-tions
are carefully checked at the blue-print
stage. For instance, will it be prac-tical
from the standpoint of production?
Will it give good service to the consum-er?
Will it sell? The careful scrutiny
of construction and design eliminates
many undesirable and impractical fea-tures
before actual production is begun.
United has a de-sign
staff of three
men who are well-known
in their field.
The designer is
given an idea of the
type of bedroom or
dining room furni-ture
the firm feels
will be profitable to
place on the market.
Then the designer
goes to work, hav-ing
many conferences with company of-ficials
over various details of the design.
Before reaching a decision on a new
design, United makes dozens of experi-mental
models checking every detail
from the standpoint of salability and
consumer acceptance. This is an indica-tion
of the vast amount of experimental
R. L. MYERS
y n l T | d FtfArrnrtf €#iit"
'" :: ^:
United's Plant. The concrete block portion in the foreground is the shipping department. The center area is the finishing room.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 33
research behind the scenes at United to
make sure that each new pattern will
prove a fast seller on the customer's
floors.
Hundreds of colors are tested on a
wide variety of woods before any de-cisions
are reached as to the woods and
finishes for new patterns. New hardware
in hundreds of designs and finishes is
carefully considered before selections are
finally made.
Only high-grade lumber is used in
United's production, and scientifically-controlled
drying from the time the
lumber enters United's kilns assures
maximum utilization of the board and
eliminates trouble which occurs when
improperly seasoned lumber is used. The
rough lumber is carried to the rip-saws
of United's mill room by belt conveyor,
thereby reducing time and labor in-volved
in this particular operation.
Selected veneers are used and these
veneers, along with core stock, are pro-cessed
in the large hot plate press which
eliminates peeling or lifting of veneers
in the finished product. After all parts of
the machine panels are made up, smooth
surfaces and proper fittings are assured
when all parts are carefully sanded many
times in the modern sanding room.
The furniture parts are then ready to
be assembled by the trained and experi-enced
case-fitters in the cabinet room.
All cases are custom-fitted to insure the
beauty and servicability of each piece
of furniture.
With careful inspection in each depart-ment,
the assembled furniture moves
from the cabinet room into the finishing
room where each item is placed on one
of the trays of the large conveyor sys-tem.
After each spraying operation in
the finishing room, the furniture passes
on the conveyor through large ovens
which are scientifically controlled to
guarantee the desired finish. After the
filling material is applied, each piece of
furniture is hand rubbed while it is still
on the conveyor to remove any excess
filler. Upon completion of the finishing
operations and after the finish has been
allowed to dry, the furniture moves to
the rubbing room where each piece is
taken off the conveyor and carefully
hand rubbed and polished for lasting-beauty.
The packing room receives the furni-ture
next, and the average consumer
would be amazed if she were to see the
furniture being packed. Padding ma-terials,
corner braces, and containers
which must meet rigid requirements are
all used to pack each piece of furniture
with such care that the consumer has no
doubt that the furniture will be on its
way in excellent condition and will quick-ly
reach its destination whether by rail
or by truck.
United Furniture employs over 500
people, many of whom were with the
company before the original plant burn-ed.
An efficient sales organization covers
the entire United States and parts of
Canada, and the company ships into all
of these areas and into South America.
Today, United produces a wide variety
of bedroom and dining room furniture in
the medium-priced bracket. The styles
represented are many, including Modern,
Contemporary, Colonial, Ranch, French
Provincial, Italian Provincial, and Dan-ish
among others.
Nationally advertised in both trade and
consumer publications, United's products
are well known. One of United's trade-marks
features a small boy and small girl
dressed in grown-up wedding attire under
the caption: "Sooner or later they all say
'LET'S GET UNITED'". United Furni-ture
Corporation is happy and proud that
many hundreds of thousands of consum-ers
have actively adopted this theme:
"LET'S GET UNITED!"
New Unemployment
Starts Seasonal Climb
An average of 3,265 new claims were
filed weekly during October. This is not
only one-third higher than September
but is also 39 per cent over the October
1959 rate. Several factors are responsi-ble
for this rise. Construction work
begins to slacken as cold weather ap-proaches
which results in a decided in-crease
in construction claims. The rise
in claims from food products was also
seasonal. Claimants with job ties filed
in significant numbers, especially in the
textile, apparel and furniture industries.
Nevertheless, perhaps the strongest fac-tor
in the October rise, is the gradual
closing of the tobacco markets and pro-cessing
plants. In October an average
of 100 tobacco claimants filed new
claims each week as compared with only
35 in September.
Bunk bed ensemble from a popular ash ranch suite. Beds can be used as twin beds if desired.
PAGE 34 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
WILMINGTON STORY
—Continued from page 30
—
capita income studies by Barclay Gibbs
Jones, UNC, it is significant to note that
New Hanover's per capita income has
improved from 14th place in 1950, to 8th
in 1954, and now, according to the Tax
Research study, to 4th in 1958.
From the latest available figures on
labor supply, the Area has ample labor
Table I
A Comparative Study of the Growth of Insured Employment and Wages
in New Hanover County and North Carolina in Terms of Per Cent Gains From 1950
Number of Avg. M jnthly Avg. Weekly Earnings
Year and Major Ind jstry Reporting
N. H.
Units
N. C.
Employment
N. H. N. C.
Total Wages Per Worker
N. H. N. C. N. H. N. C.
All Industries
—
1959 101.6% 119.3% 33.6% 33.1% 94.1% 91.0% 45.4% 43.5%
1956 98.9 102.5 33.2 27.6 78.4 61.8 33.9 26.8
*1953 16.6 11.6 19.1 10.2 47.8 27.1 24.1 15.3
Construction
—
1959 173.0 171.3 50.6 38.7 89.5 92.1 25.9 38.5
1956 140.5 143.7 31.4 30.0 62.3 63.8 23.5 26.0
1953 27.0 17.9 47.9 0.6 88.9 26.5 27.8 25.8
Manufacturing
1959 19.2 50.0 27.9 22.3 93.4 75.5 51.2 43.5
1956 19.2 41.8 25.4 16.5 76.5 46.9 40.8 26.1
1953 11.5 10.1 23.7 9 5 62.7 23.2 31.4 12.5
Utilities
1959 121.7 129.1 46.5 52.9 126.9 157.4 54.9 68.4
1956 69.6 85.0 14.2 37.2 67.3 96.0 46.6 42.9
H953 52.2 10.1 3.0 22.2 17.2 52.3 13.8 24.7
Trade
—
1959 95.3 128.6 28.8 48.7 76.0 102.7 36.7 36.3
1956 109.4 115.3 46.8 47.2 81.1 79.7 23.4 22.1
1953 12.4 11.7 18.1 10.7 37.7 27.4 16.6 15.1
Finance
—
1959 178.9 194.1 64.9 103.3 142.5 190.1 47.1 42.7
1956 178.9 145.2 67.8 76.6 126.7 126.8 135.1 28.5
1953 21.1 17.0 1.3 24.7 33.6 48.4 31.9 19.0
Service & Other —1959 173.2 173.4 32.6 40.9 100.4 97.8 51.1 40.3
1956 148.8 153.6 33.9 48.2 87.9 96.5 40.3 32.6
1953 12.2 8.1 5.1 10.1 27.3 33.3 21.0 21.0
* Computed From Revised Dat;
for an employment expansion. In Sep-tember
1960, the industrial labor supply
was estimated at over 1,800, and in the
three county area—New Hanover, Burns-wick
and Pender—the supply totaled ap-proximately
4,500 potential workers, of
whom about 750 were skilled and semi-skilled.
This was not a count of the
unemployed, but rather an estimate of
the number of workers who could be at-tracted
to industry. These workers would
come from the unemployed; new en-trants,
including housewives; persons
now commuting to work in other areas;
transfers from agriculture, etc.
A look at the insured unemployment
experience of the Wilmington employ-ment
security office area—New Hanover,
Brunswick and Pender counties—will
throw even more light on the availability
of labor and its under-utilization. As
shown in Table III, in only one year
since 1949 has the Wilmington Area had
a lower unemployment ratio than the
state-wide average. In most years Wilm-ington's
insured unemployment ratio has
run considerably higher; e.g., in 1958,
9.3 vs 6.2; 1959, 7.1 vs 4.1; and first
three quarters of 1960, 8.4 vs 4.4.
—See WILMINGTON, page 37—
MORE UNITED PICTURES
sooner o** later
tl-iey a.11 say...
"let's get
United
IWdTfD fwnitwa Owpwatto, Laxmjton. North Careltna
Unitcd's Popular Trade Mark.
Walnut Dining Room Group. Note recessed hardware and sliding doors.
Solid Wood Pulls and linefold doors are outstanding features of this contemporary walnut suite.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 35
Carriker Church Furniture Company Is Really Big Business
By Steve H. Presson, Gen. Mgr.
Carriker Church Furniture Company
succeeded the firm of C. A. Carriker and
Sons in May 1954, purchasing all the
machinery and inventory from the part-nership
of B. C. and H. W. Carriker which
had been manufacturing church furni-ture
exclusively since 1940. Over 95% of
the production and management person-nel
was retained by the new firm. Opera-tions
were continued at the original loca-tion
in a wooden frame building at Rt.
#2, Monroe, N. C. (near Unionville) until
December of 1954 when the corporation
moved into its new 40,000 square foot,
brick veneer, sprinklered building on
Broome St. in the corporate limits of
Monroe. This building was specially de-signed
to closely coincide with every
phase of the company's operation. In
1959 a 4000' square foot warehouse was
added to enable the firm to stock a larger
and more varied supply of kiln dried lum-ber,
and in 1960 three acres of adjoining
land were purchased for future expan-sion.
The company designs, manufactures
and distributes a quality line of church
furniture throughout the United States;
the pew line primarily confined to the
southern and eastern section of the coun-try
and the chancel furniture and related
items shipped nationwide. Factory sales-men
cover North and South Carolina, and
the company has distributors located in
Jacksonville, Florida; Birmingham, Ala-bama;
Richmond, Virginia; Louisville,
Kentucky; Washington, D. C; Baltimore,
Maryland; MacArthur, W. Va.; Pitts-burgh
and Philadelphia, Pa.; Cleveland,
Ohio; Paterson, New Jersey, New York
City, and Bridgeport, Conn. The firm
manufactures seating for approximately
two hundred churches each year, these
sales being made both to completely new
churches and churches in a renovating
and expansion program.
The design and engineering depart-ment
of the company works closely with
the church architect with regards to the
furniture to assure a harmonious blend
of style and color. When churches do not
employ the services of an architect, the
services of this design and engineering
department are available to the church
to help them select the appropriate furni-ture
for their building. It is not uncom-mon
for complete plan and elevation
drawings of the furniture to be made and
presented to the church for their study,
comments, and final approval. After the
church has placed the order for the furni-ture,
decided upon style, color, etc. all is
in readiness for fabrication of the furni-ture
to begin. When production of the
order begins, the rough, kiln-dried lum-ber,
which has been hauled to the factory
on trailer trucks, is ripped, glued, ma-chined,
sanded, and carried through the
various machines and processes neces-sary
in the manufacture of church furni-ture.
Staining and finishing is the last
process to take place prior to loading
the furniture on trucks for shipment to
destination. Church pews are loaded
knocked down and trained crews go to
the job site and assemble and install the
furniture right in the church.
Approximately fifty employees work
for the company year round with little
fluctuation in numbers as church furni-ture
is not a seasonal occupation, orders
being quite steady the year round.
The firm is a closely held corporation
and has the following officers: E. G.
Baker, Statesville, N. C, president; Joe
Sherrill, Statesville, N. C, vice president;
Joe G. Shelton, Statesville, N. C, Sec. &
Treas.; and Steve H. Presson; Monroe,
N. C, Asst. Sec. & Treas. Joe G. Shelton
and Steve H. Presson are the only of-ficers
actively engaged in the business,
being the sales manager and general
manager respectively.
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Statesville, N. C.
Top (Left) Chief design engineer. Max Cobb, (rear) and Maurice McCauley, draftsman (foreground)
in drafting and engineering dept. (Center) Ed Moore, office manager, figuring a quotation.
(Right) Henry Adcock at the jointer. (Bottom) Frank Furr and David Pressley routing pew ends.
(Center) Garrison Medlin making paneled pew ends. (Bottom) Willie Tomberlin operating High
Frequency Glue machine.
PAGE 36 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1960
BOLING CHAIRS COULD SEAT THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE FIFTY STATES
If a running- total of the number of
chairs manufactured and distributed by
Boling Chair Company of Siler City, N.
C. since 1904 had been kept, the total
could easily appi-oach the adult popula-tion
of the United States today. In this
56th year of a highly successful opera-tion,
Boling chairs can be found in of-fices,
homes, schools and institutions in
every one of the 50 states and many
foreign countries.
The forerunner of the present firm was
organized in 1901 and was known as the
Siler City Bending Co. who specialized
in the manufacture of wagon and buggy
rims. In 1904 the company was reor-ganized
under the name of High Point
Bending and Chair Co., and incorpora-tors
included Capt. W. P. Brown, ori-ginally
of Cleveland, Ohio, who was mill
manager, J. Wade Siler, S. H. Tomlinson
and M. J. Boling. Following a fire in
December of 1907 the factory was re-built
and the first "bentwood" chair ever
to be made in the South was developed
by Mi". Boling and Mr. Brown. Now, over
half a century later, all curved parts on
Boling chairs are still being "steam bent"
for greater strength and beauty.
In 1926 a new line of office chairs was
developed, and today a major proportion
of the firm's production facilities is de-voted
to a complete and comprehensive
line of "Chairs For All Business." From
Utility stools to handsome executive
chairs upholstered in leather, plastics or
fabric, Boling chairs are found in private
offices, general offices, conference rooms,
reception areas, etc. Boling office
chairs have received national recognition
not only through the editorial pages of
the country's leading magazines, but al-so
from the publicity resulting from the
opening of huge, new office buildings,
governmental and political meetings
—
and the discerning eye can spot many
Boling chairs on innumerable TV pro-grams.
A long standing company policy
still insists that "Our product is our best
advertising." A consistent advertising
program incorporating thousands of
pieces of descriptive literature and cata-logs
has helped to spread the Boling
name from coast to coast.
Perhaps less well known, but a major
factor in the firm's amazing growth has
been their manufacture of chairs for
homes, schools and institutions. Boling
chairs are consistently finding their way
into schools and colleges, public and
private libraries, churches, auditoriums,
cafeterias, etc. Today, single orders for
over 1,000 chairs for such installations
are not uncommon. Another Boling spec-ialty
has been the development of a
line of authentic Early American occas-ional
chairs for home use. These highly
decorative and functional reproductions
have found use in every conceivable dec-orative
scheme in use by the modern
American homemaker.
In 1951 a dimension lumber plant was
developed in Azalea, North Carolina. This
plant supplies much of the stock used in
the Siler City Manufacturing operation,
Supreme Court Judge Type or
Chair.
'Senior Executive"
Some of the types of chairs manufactured by Boiling.
SUMMER-FALL, 1960 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 37
and is a major user of the many tine,
high quality woods grown in the moun-tainous
area around Asheville, North
Carolina. In 1960, a three-story addition
to Plant "A" in Siler City was begun.
This new building will materially in-crease
and streamline the company's pro-duction.
In 1956 the corporate name of the com-pany
was changed to "Boling Chair Com-pany."
Doling chairs had grown to such
stature in the industry that the name had
become synonymous with the factory.
Present officers of the company are:
F. J. Boling, President, J. K. Boling, Vice
President, K. G. Clapp, Treasurer and
H. E. Stout, Secretary.
The Siler City Boiling Chair Company Plant.
WILMINGTON STORY
- Continued from page 34
—
Table II
Trend of Insured Employment in Manufacturing
in New Hanover County and North Carolina
1950-1960
Industry and Area
Per Cent Change From
1950 to 1960
All Manufacturing
New Hanover
North Carolina
Textile Mill Products
New Hanover
North Carolina
Apparel
New Hanover
North Carolina
Food & Kindred Products
New Hanover
North Carolina
Lumber and Wood
New Hanover
North Carolina
Chemicals
New Hanover
North Carolina
Fabricated Metals
New Hanover
North Carolina
All Other
New Hanover
North Carolin